Religious Doubt and Mental Health

Abstract

The first section of the chapter briefly presents historical (Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas) and modern (James H. Snowden and Paul Tillich) theological perspectives about religious doubt, as well as psychological perspectives about religious doubt, including Gordon Allport’s ideas about the causes of religious doubt. The rest of the chapter summarizes the research findings from convenience samples of religious Americans and several large studies of random samples of Americans (including a random sample of Christian Americans), all of which demonstrate that religious doubt has a pernicious association with psychological well-being. The chapter also presents the results of several large national and regional U.S. studies that indicate religious doubt has a pernicious association with psychiatric symptoms. Based on ETAS Theory, the pernicious effects of religious doubt at least partly reflect the fact (a) that doubts undermine the sense of meaning and security provided by religious faith, and (b) that uncertainty about one’s beliefs increases anxiety, just as uncertainty about the future increases anxiety. Some of the large studies also found that the adverse effects of religious doubt on mental health were more pronounced in persons who had a strong religious commitment or religious identity. This finding is important because it suggests that religious doubt threatens the social role (and therefore, the self-esteem) of religious people within their religious community, which is consistent with Identity Theory and ETAS Theory. According to ETAS Theory, this threat to self-esteem makes people more vulnerable to other forms of threats, which further exacerbates psychiatric symptoms.