Religious Self-identification Research Articles

Sposoby religioznoj samoidentifikacii v situacii obshchestvennoj konfrontacii: russkoe obshchestvo v konce XIX – pervoj chetverti XX v. (po materialam religioveda A.S. Prugavina)

The article deals with the problem of religious self-identification in Russian society during the period of historical upheavals - the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries and the first quarter of the 20th century. The relevance of the research is due to the ongoing search for a compromise between the confessional branches of Orthodoxy today. Society and the government in Russia are looking for a common social and spiritual foundation for Russian society. The question of religious searches in different parts of Russian society is considered in the article. The views and conclusions of representatives of various social movements are compared. The key attention in the text is paid to the views of populist researchers. The materials of the famous Russian religious scholar Alexander Stepanovich Prugavin are taken as the basis of the article. A review of publications and archival data has been compiled. Some of the materials are presented by Prugavins personal fund, which is located in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts. The views of the religious scholar on the possible path of development for contemporary Russia are analyzed. He singled out the Old Believers as a special social group in the country.

Features of hybrid identity of the second/third generation of european muslims

The article deals with the problem of the hybrid identity of the representatives of the second/third generation of European Muslims, which has become a consequence of the failure of various strategies for the integration of migrants into European society. Hybridity arises in situations of cultural intersection when somewhat contradictory meanings and logics emanating from separate spheres of action combine to form new patterns. The article shows that a significant part of the representatives of the second/third generation of European Muslims, to one degree or another, accepts the collective European socio-cultural context (primarily, the values of secondary socialization), but at the same time expresses time preferences determined by religion, which are little compatible with European values. This reveals important characteristics of the hybrid identity of European Muslims - ambivalence, multilayeredness and incompleteness. The study emphasises that the majority of representatives of the second/third generation of migrants do not identify themselves either through the nationality of their parents or through European identity, but recognise themselves through religious identity. Thus, religious affiliation is stronger than both identities. The main source of formation of the hybrid identity of second/third migrants is the conflict between religious self-identification and secular European identity. It is religion that is one of the restraining barriers to the integration of migrants into the secular European society. Similarly, the mobilization of religious identity underlies the formation of a hybrid identity of European Muslims of the second/third generations.

Sociocultural representations of Tuvan youth with unconventional religiosity (sociological experience)

The article analyzes the results of the sociological study "How Tuva Lives" conducted in 2022 by the Department of Ethnodemographic, Religious, and Integration Processes of the Institute for Demographic Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The article focuses on religious youth, followers of Buddhism. Among them, we identified typological groups of "practitioners" and "non-practitioners", which were selected according to indicators of religious self-identification; self-identification by confessional affiliation; interest in eastern, non-traditional religions and teachings; motivation of interest in these beliefs; and incorporation of the practices of these religions and teachings into life activities. Note that the "practitioners" group has all the indicators of non-traditional religiosity, while the "non-practitioners" group does not include the practice of non-traditional beliefs in their life activities. A comparative analysis of the typological groups in terms of the degree of impact of the worldview aspects of non-traditional religiosity on national, ethno-confessional and migration orientations and attitudes was conducted. The results of the sociological search recorded in both typological groups a high level of tolerance toward representatives of other ethnicities and religions. At the same time among the "practitioners" there are two times more positive attitude to marriages with representatives of other ethnicity and three times fewer respondents who have a negative attitude to marriages with a person of another religion. Due to the difficult socio-economic situation in the region, more than half of the young people in the groups studied plan to move to other regions and megacities. Among the "practitioners" almost a third do not plan to return after moving, in the group of "non-practitioners" such respondents are almost half as many. The motivation to move in the typological group "practitioners" is more related to social and domestic orientations (improving housing conditions, getting better education and medical services, the opportunity to travel), and the group "non-practitioners" - to socio-professional difficulties (finding work in the specialty, increasing wages, career growth).

God Images in the Cities of Bilbao, Cordoba, Lima, and Montevideo: a Qualitative Study

The aim of this article is to analyze God images reflected in 57 interviews conducted among Catholics, Evangelicals, and other people without religious self-identification (“unaffiliated”). The interviews, which follow the Lived Religion approach, were carried out in three Latin American cities (Córdoba, Lima, and Montevideo), and in the city of Bilbao (Spain). In the latter city, both the Latin American immigrant population and the local population were considered. The systematic analysis of the interviews lets us identify a multi-faceted imaginary of the divine with diverse nuances in the images of the benevolent God, the authoritarian God and other hybrid God images. Likewise, it is striking to note what is, and what is not God, as it is reflected in various interviews. The analysis of the identified quotations suggests some differences in God images, based on geographical location and religious belonging, as well as the specific case of the unaffiliated to any religious faith.

Fear of Death in People of Mature Age with Christian Self-Identification

One of the most important functions of religion is to fill the deficits in the existence of human society, among which an important place is occupied by the awareness of human mortality. According to psychological theories, religion often appears as one of the adaptive strategies that alleviate the fear of death. However, both domestic and foreign empirical studies of the relationship between religiosity and the severity of the fear of death lead to contradictory results, which is associated with the need to take into account a large number of variables in such studies, as well as a non-linear relationship between religion and the fear of death. The authors have made an attempt to study the relationship between Christian self-identification with the conscious components of the fear of death in 118 men and women at different periods of adulthood (40-50 and 51-65 years). The conscious components of the fear of death were assessed on the Personal Death Fear Scale, and attitudes toward death (in particular, the features of experiencing the fear of death and ways to cope with it) were identified in phenomenological interviews. The data were processed using Mann - Whitney U test, correlation analysis, and phenomenological analysis of interviews. The study has shown that Christian religious self-identification in adulthood is positively correlated with the conscious fear of death, and also has age and gender specificity. In general, it is concluded that, in order to explain the relationship between Christian self-identification and the conscious fear of death, it is necessary to analyze the role that the religious worldview plays in people's understanding of their life path. Based on the results of the study, it can be assumed that the leading motive in choosing a Christian worldview is not so much overcoming the fear of personal death as the search for effective ways to cope with difficult life situations. That is why Christian self-identification does not contribute to reducing the fear of personal death, responding to a greater extent to other motives related to the need to “cope with life.” To sum up, the authors show that religiosity is not a universal tool that can unequivocally reduce the fear of death.

Religiosidad bisagra: articulaciones de la religiosidad vivida con la dimensión colectiva en México

This article is based on results derived from the collective project “Religion and society in Mexico: recompositions from experience and practiced meaning”. Its purpose is to explore the everyday religions of contemporary Mexico. The methodological proposal is an adaptation of the lived religion approach, but implementing a representative sample of the main trends of religious change in Mexico detected by the Encreer 2016 survey. We propose the concept of hinge religiosity to avoid the individualistic bias of lived religion and include a relational perspective that allows us to focus the analysis on the way individual expectations are negotiated with the system of institutional norms and values, self-identification with respect to a wide range of affiliations and categories of belonging, individual life with socialities and communitarianisms, changes in the continuity of traditions, and the contribution of faith to the solution of social problems in secular environments. Based on the empirical material provided by our interviews, we analyzed two transversal axes in the cases of the interviewees: autonomy in the processes of religious self-identification and action in the world guided by this religious identification. The analysis of the first axis was ordered according to religious affiliation and the second, according to the type of activism developed by the subjects, highlighting the dimensions of gender and sexual diversity. In the conclusions, we assess how the hinge religion approach allows us to link different scales of the analysis of religiousness and to pay attention to the continuities between the practices, experiences, and worldview elaborations of the subjects and their broader spiritual/religious context.

Religiousness and its interpretation: variety of sociological measurement methods

The article presents an overview of studies on the sociological dimension of the phenomenon of religiosity in modern society. At the moment, as experts in the field of the sociology of religion note, methodological disputes regarding the measurement of the level and degree of religiosity of the population continue quite actively. Among the approaches to studying the religiosity of the population, there are both multidimensional and one-dimensional conceptual models. Within the multidimensional approach, religiosity is represented by a set of characteristics that describe this category. At the same time, researchers who use a multidimensional approach as part of their theoretical constructions have not yet reached a consensus on exactly what indicators can be used to describe the concept of "religiosity". In most cases, the authors measure religiosity based on such characteristics as faith, rituals and practices, as well as knowledge within a particular religious doctrine. Applied domestic research is based on indicators of both religious consciousness and religious behavior in the process of determining the level and degree of religiosity of both the population as a whole and social groups in particular. Also, the phenomenon of religiosity is studied from the standpoint of subjective indicators of respondents' self-identification, their personal interpretation of their religious consciousness, and from the point of view of the level of respondents' religious activity. The issue of religious self-identification in mass surveys is still debatable and requires more careful empirical substantiation in further research.

Religion, Trust, and Vaccine Hesitancy in Australia

Religion has been identified as a potential driver of vaccine hesitancy. Nevertheless, the connections between religion and immunisation refusal can be complex, while there is a deficit of research exploring religion and vaccination doubts in Australia. With that in mind, this study considers Australian vaccine hesitancy with respect to religion and trust by analysing the 2018 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes and the Australian dataset of the 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor. Statistical analyses reveal no significant correlations between religion and vaccine hesitancy, while participants with negative vaccine attitudes identify that they do not have religious reasons for being vaccine hesitant. Nonetheless, a higher proportion of respondents with negative vaccine attitudes self-identify as religious or spiritual and maintain pro-religious views. It was also found that negative vaccine attitudes are correlated with unfavourable perceptions of both Jews and Muslims. Notably, religious self-identification divides two main groups of vaccine hesitant participants, described as Religious Conservatives and Nonreligious Progressives. These groups diverge on sexual ethics and social concerns, as well as around whether they trust in science as opposed to religion, while differing in their perceptions of Jews. What unites these vaccine hesitant participants, however, is a mutual lack of trust in government and scientists.

Sacredness of Museum Spaces in Activities of the Pagan Community Rus’ke Pravoslavne Kolo (Community of Rus’ people who praise gods)

This article focuses on the activities of one of the Native Faith organizations of Ukraine, the Rus’ke Pravoslavne Kolo (Community of Rus’ people who praise gods, hereafter CRLG). This organization was founded in October 2007. The center of the community’s activities is located in the city of Zaporizhzhia, located on the banks of the Dnipro River. The riverbed is divided by the island of Khortytsia, the largest island on the Dnipro, the pride of Ukraine and a national reserve. The island also contains important historical and archaeological sites. They are part of the CRLG’s religious and ritual activities. It should be noted that the island of Khortytsia and its objects (the complex of cromlechs of the Eneolithic period, the sanctuary of the Bronze Age, and the “Scythian Camp” tourist-memorial complex are important components of the religious self-identification of many contemporary Ukrainian Pagans. They give a feeling of belonging to antiquity, to spiritual sources. But it is the representatives of the CRLG, due to the geographical proximity to the museum space of the island of Khortytsia, who most actively use it in their religious and spiritual practices. Contemporary Pagans themselves also create museum spaces that have become part of the culture, such as the Rodovid wandering museum. In 2014, Bereginya Yana (Yasna) Yakovenko became its ideological inspirer and organizer. The museum exhibits are based on Yana Yakovenko’s collection of embroidered shirts (vyshyvankas). The Rodovid Museum began its active work precisely due to people’s interest inthe traditions of embroidery. Yana Yakovenko lectures at schools in Zaporizhzhia and conducts appropriate master classes. Today, the exhibits of this museum are in her home. The museum is “wandering” because it does not have a special room for its exhibits, but in 2020 Yana Yakovenko has officially issued documents for museum activities.

Representations of the Iron Din Movement in Socio-Сommunicative and Historical-Cultural Discourses

In this article, we attempt to identify the topical issues of the religious movement Iron Din in socio-communicative, historical, cultural, and political discourses. The study applies on the interdisciplinary approach based on a systematic review of textual materials, scientific research devoted to Iron Din, and interviewing adherents of this movement. Iron Din has a dual nature, incorporating both the essence of the traditional Ossetian religion and the specifics inherent to new religious movements. In our opinion, this specific dualism and ambivalence are one of the key features of Iron Din. We have identified a number of prerequisites for the spread and popularization of Iron Din as one of the forms of religious self-identification in modern Ossetian culture. These are globalization, digitalization, the prevalence of visual culture over verbal culture (the so-called visual turn), and the mythologization of modern mass culture. The analysis of the data obtained from the source base enables us to identify key problem areas in the development of the Iron Din movement at the present stage. Among the most acute issues affecting the worldview basis of the movement are the following: firstly, the problem of religious self-identification (monotheism, paganism, syncretism), secondly, the problem of respondents' religious choices (family tradition, personal choice) and thirdly, the problem of inter-confessional conflicts (confrontation with Orthodoxy, mainly in digital format, i.e. on the Internet information platforms). All of them have enabled us to draw the following conclusion: at present, Iron Din is a syncretic movement including both loci of traditional Ossetian beliefs and a set of elements typical for new religious movements. Iron Din has absorbed the autochthonous customs, rituals, and norms of behavior of the Ossetian people, which acquired a new interpretation in terms of globalization. According to the respondents, the most important characteristics that an Iron Din believer should possess include courage, modesty, moderation, honesty, respect for seniors, etc. Religious illiteracy and a decline in morality appear among the shortcomings identified by the respondents. According to the survey, inter-confessional disagreements are not widespread and are accumulated exclusively within the digital discourse. The results of the interviews and the systematic review have shown that the cult of nature is not prevailing or autonomous in Iron Din: it is sacred natural loci (places of prayer) and a material expression of culture. It is better to define the Iron Din movement as a part of national identity, largely formed under the influence of religious syncretism and the fledgling movements of the new century.

Development of the Ukrainian Orthodoxy in the Conditions of the Revanchist Policy of the Russian Federation against Ukraine

The article analyzes the development of Ukrainian Orthodoxy in the context of the revenge policy of Russia against Ukraine at the turn of the 21st century. It is discovered that almost a quarter of a century of inactivity of the Ukrainian authorities and active anti-Ukrainian and anti-state actions of the Russian Orthodox Church and its Little-Russian branch the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate contributed to their introduction into the Ukrainian humanitarian space of fundamental ideas, dogmas, and postulates of the “Russian World,” which subsequently led to the occupation by Russia of Crimea and parts of Donbas and the so-called “Russian Spring” in 2014. It is shown that Russia’s armed and information aggression in early 2014 called into question the very existence of the Ukrainian state and the Ukrainian nation, but thanks to the all-Ukrainian patriotic movement, including the stated policy and position of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate, the enemy was stopped. It is proved that the undeclared Russian-Ukrainian hybrid warfare led not only to temporary territorial losses, huge casualties, tragedies, etc., but also to the unification of Ukrainians, the creation of the Ukrainian political nation, and a significant consolidation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyiv Patriarchate. Russian aggression became a catalyst for the unity of pro-Ukrainian forces and contributed to the intensification of the process of creating the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Research on religious identification of representatives of the Ukrainian community has been carried out using the methods of individual questionnaire survey and included observation; the influence of the destructive Russian factor on their religious self-identification has been traced. It is found that in the context of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Armed Forces, which began on February 24, 2022, Ukrainians united in the name of victory over the aggressor, so the patriotic believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate will have to make a final choice about whether or not to join the Orthodox Church of Ukraine not only to weaken the pro-Russian fifth column in Ukraine but to help resistance forces in liberating the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories.

Метаморфозы «на краю света»: транзитивное общество теленгитов обособленного селения

The article focuses on the interdisciplinary analysis of the transformation processes in social situation of development of local people in the territorially detached community (a case study of the Yazula village of Ulagan region of the Altai Republic) through comparison of expeditionary materials of 2003 and 2019 years. The research is conducted within the framework of cultural-historical psychology and based on the methodological principle of metaposition. The analysis demonstrates that increasing of cultural diversity dictates the need for self-determination of locals and their families on behavioral level and complicates the structure of their social identity, including a problem of ethnocultural and religious self-identification. These processes provide the experiencing of insecurity of locals in front of the “outside world” and strengthen preservation of life-important rituals and sacred elements of ethnic culture.

Religious self-identification of modern Amur Oblast residents based on a sociological survey)

Religious self-identification of modern Amur Oblast residents based on a sociological survey)

Religious Self-Identification and Culture—About the Role of Religiosity in Cultural Participation

Culture has its source and anchoring in religion, but the presence of religious values in social life takes place in terms of culture and through culture. Religiosity plays a key role in defining the boundaries of cultural differences, and this paper raises questions as to the extent, ways and environments where religiosity may influence active cultural participation. The research paper attempts to identify the impact of religiosity on such activities. This involves determining which dimensions of religiosity should be distinguished and are most relevant for cultural participation in Poland. The study showed that religiosity influences cultural participation, but ambiguously. Religious self-identification and spiritual self-identification turned out to be the most significant factors. Religiosity is relevant for cultural participation, but mainly when it is a significant element of individual identity.

Мир животных в «Трагическом зверинце» Л. Д. Зиновьевой-Аннибал

The article reveals the images of animals in the cycle of stories The Tragic Menagerie (1907) by the writer of the Silver Age L. D. Zinovieva-Annibal (1866–1907) and their role in molding the character of the heroine. These images perform several functions. They establish the environmental discourse of the narrative, shape the moral and philosophical problem range, facilitate the religious self-identification of the main character.

Религиозность студенческой молодежи Ульяновского государственного педагогического университета: опыт социологического исследования

Presented is analysis of religiosity of students of the Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University, by which the author understands a complex category that includes religious and confessional self-identification, a set of institutional religious ideas, the degree of involvement in real religious practice and syncretic formations that arose in the course of interfaith and intercultural interaction. The empirical base of the study was made up of materials from a mass Internet survey, in which 1316 people took part — students studying in various specialties. The choice of students of the Ulyanovsk pedagogical university as an object of research is due to the specificity of the world outlook of student youth, the strengthening of the role of religion in the system of domestic higher education in the last decade, as well as the specificity of the Ulyanovsk region in ethno-confessional terms. In terms of confessional affiliation, 68.2% identified themselves as Christianity, 15.7% as Islam. In addition, 47.6% of the respondents consider themselves to be believers. At the same time, a relatively small part of the respondents demonstrates a high degree of involvement in religious life. In particular, only 2% of the Christians surveyed attend church every week. In addition, the study revealed that among some of the respondents non-institutional religious beliefs associated with magic, as well as beliefs associated with the influence of other religions, appear in their religious consciousness. For example, some Muslims consider Jesus to be God, which can be explained by the influence of Christian culture.

The Felkin Family: The Decline of a Baptist Family

ABSTRACT The issue of the retention of religious belief within families has recently begun to attract researchers [Christian Smith and David Sikkink, “Social Predictors of Retention in and Switching from the Religious Faith of Family of Origin: Another Look Using Religious Tradition Self-Identification,” Review of Religious Research 45, no. 2 (2003): 188–206. Accessed October 23, 2020. doi:10.2307/3512582. This includes a helpful summary of recent research]. This paper examines the family history of a prominent East Midlands Baptist family of the early 1800s to identify how faith changed over generations. The Felkin family moved from poor stocking weavers to regionally important Baptist leaders and wealthy industrialists within two generations; thereafter they gained access to higher education and social circles, with a decline in Baptist identity to the extent that some embraced other religions.

Religion and wellbeing: devotion, happiness and life satisfaction in Turkey

ABSTRACT Most of the published research addressing the relationship between subjective wellbeing and religiosity has relied on Western populations and used Judeo-Christian participants. The present study examined links between subjective wellbeing and religion in the predominantly Muslim country of Turkey. Using pooled data from the World Values Survey (n = 9289), this research explored whether religious devotion could be linked to happiness and life satisfaction in a Turkish population. The findings suggest that higher levels of religious self-identification, the importance given to religion and God and mosque attendance were all associated with greater levels of happiness and life satisfaction. In addition, the results show that mosque attendance, which is less common among women, did not have significantly different effects on the subjective wellbeing of women and men.

38.3 Religious and Spiritual Self-Identification Among Psychiatrically Hospitalized LGBTQ Adolescents

Studies of religious and/or spiritual (R/S) self-identification between lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and/or questioning (LGBTQ) and non-LGBTQ adolescents have yielded mixed findings. Despite potential impacts of R/S on suicide risk, prior studies have not examined these differences in adolescent psychiatric hospital settings. This study compared the degree to which LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents self-identify as R/S. Analyzing adolescent patients’ (12-17 years old; n = 334) psychiatric hospital admission forms, this study compared R/S self-identification among sexual orientation and gender identity groups using independent samples t tests and χ2 analyses. Spiritual and religious identity were assessed by 2 items: “To what extent do you consider yourself a spiritual person?” and “To what extent do you consider yourself a religious person?”. LGBTQ adolescents self-identified as significantly less religious than non-LGBTQ adolescents (t312 = 3.70; p < 0.001; d = 0.46). The prevalence of religious self-identification as “not at all religious” and “moderately religious” differed among gender identity and sexual orientation groups (χ2 [6, N = 313] = 18.67; p = 0.005). Proportionally more non-LGBTQ adolescents identified as “moderately” religious (26.5%) than transgender/questioning adolescents (3.7%; p = 0.009). The prevalence of “not at all religious” identification was lower for non-LGBTQ adolescents (27.0%) than either nontransgender LGBTQ adolescents (43.7%; p = 0.0008) or transgender/questioning adolescents (59.3%; p = 0.0006). Groups did not significantly differ in spiritual self-identification (p > 0.563). In a psychiatrically hospitalized sample, LGBTQ adolescents reported similar spiritual self-identification as non-LGBTQ adolescents but lower religious self-identification. Transgender/questioning adolescents were less likely to identify as “moderately” religious than non-LGBTQ adolescents, and both transgender/questioning and nontransgender LGBQ adolescents were more likely to identify as “not at all religious” than non-LGBTQ adolescents. Our findings suggest a need to assess both spirituality and religiosity when exploring mental health impacts of the intersection of R/S, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

EleanorMcLaughlin, Unconscious Christianity in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Late Theology: Encounters with the Unknown Christ. London: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2020, 210 pp. $95.00/£73.00

EleanorMcLaughlin, Unconscious Christianity in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Late Theology: Encounters with the Unknown Christ. London: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2020, 210 pp. $95.00/£73.00