Abstract
The interplay between religion, morality, and community-making is a core theme across human experience, yet scholars have only recently begun to quantify these links. Drawing on a sample of 1512 self-identified religious – mainly Christian (86.0%) – New Zealanders, we used structural equation modeling to test hypothesized associations between Religious Orientations (Quest, Intrinsic, Extrinsic Personal, Extrinsic Social) and Moral Foundations (Care/Harm, Fairness/Cheating, Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, Sanctity/Degradation). Our results show, for the first time in a comprehensive model, how different ways of valuing communities are associated with different ways of valuing religion.
Highlights
Religious Orientations theories (RO) and Moral Foundations theory (MFT) offer distinct theoretical perspectives in the moral psychology of religion
By assessing predicted associations between MFT and RO, we empirically evaluate each tradition in terms of the other’s central constructs
As indicated at the outset, assessing these associations is interesting because (i) there is currently no formal assessment of the links between RO and MFT; (ii) MFT researchers have questioned the relevance of RO on theoretical, not empirical, grounds; (iii) assessing relationships between the core constructs of MFT and RO is a basic precondition for constructing causal models
Summary
Religious Orientations theories (RO) and Moral Foundations theory (MFT) offer distinct theoretical perspectives in the moral psychology of religion. We tested hypothetical associations between RO and MFT constructs in a large population of selfidentified religious adherents in New Zealand. Investigating these associations is important for three reasons. RO and MFT are influential theoretical positions in the moral psychology of religion. No previous study has assessed how their central constructs relate.
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