宗教与认同:宗教对自我认同发展的作用分析

对自我的研究是宗教心理学研究的重要领域。宗教是青少年自我认同发展的重要源泉。文章对宗教在自我认同发展过程中的作用进行了深入的分析后认为,从宏观角度上看,宗教是青少年认同发展的意识形态基础;宗教为青少年提供社会化的社会环境;宗教还是青少年认同发展的重要精神背景。文章还以仪式和祈祷为例,从微观角度分析了宗教崇拜对青少年认同发展的作用和意义。     

Religion,Identity and Freedom of Expression

This article examines the issues raised by religious adherents’ wish to express their beliefs in the public domain through, for example, their modes of dress, their performance of public roles, and their response to homosexuality. It considers on what grounds religion might merit special treatment and how special that treatment should be. A common approach to these issues is through the notion of religious identity, but both the idea of religious identity and its use to ground claims against others prove deeply problematic. An alternative and more productive approach is through the notion of harm. People should enjoy the freedom to express their religious convictions subject to the harm principle, but harm should include the undermining of people’s status as free and equal citizens. The article concludes by considering the grounds upon which this alternative approach might recognize religion as special and might justify giving an overriding status to civic equality.     

Transcendence and the Moral Self: Identity Integration, Religion, and Moral Life

Although moral reasoning is able to account for some of the variability in moral behavior, much remains unexplained. Recently, a number of components of personality have been proposed as bridging the gap between moral reasoning and moral behavior. The present study investigates the role that identity integration (the extent to which one's moral values have become integrated into identity) and religious orientation (one's motivation for engaging in religious practice) play in moral functioning. A sample of 60 undergraduates was assessed on identity integration, religious orientation, moral reasoning, and self-reported altruism. We found positive correlations among moral reasoning, identity integration, intrinsic religious orientation, and self-reported altruism. A hierarchical regression analysis, however, revealed moral reasoning to be the only significant predictor of self-reported altruistic behavior. We discuss the relationship between moral reasoning and identity integration and the extent to which the intrinsic religious orientation scale may be a measure of identity integration in the religious domain.     

Wittgenstein and the Criticism of Religion A Case Study

This article discusses the relevance of Wittgenstein's remarks on the doctrine of predestination for an understanding of his approach to religious matters. On the one hand, Wittgenstein held that this doctrine involves distorted concepts and is ethically and religiously nonsensical. On the other, he stated that others may find it “good and godly.” He seems to suggest that personal experience shapes the genuine meaning of the doctrine of predestination. The points that emerge cast light on tensions prevailing between Wittgenstein's conception of meaning as essentially a social and inter-subjective matter and his individualist perspective in the matter of religion. These issues lie at the heart of the dispute over Wittgenstein's views on the possibility of a philosophical criticism of religion.     

Two Approaches to Religion and Politics: Moral Cosmology and Subcultural Identity*

We explore two competing approaches to internal religious divisions and their political consequences. The “moral cosmology” approach focuses on religious worldviews. It juxtaposes the religiously orthodox to modernists, arguing that the former are theologically communitarian in belief while the latter are individualistic. The religiously orthodox worldview (relative to modernists) is posited to lead to politically conservative stances on cultural issues of abortion, sexuality, and family but politically liberal stances on economic issues. In contrast, the “subcultural identity” approach focuses on identity rather than worldview. According to this approach, self‐identified evangelicals and fundamentalists are expected to be more politically conservative on both cultural and economic issues when compared to mainline or liberal Protestants. Through analyses of the 1998 GSS, which allows operationalization of the two approaches and their extension to Catholic identities, we find that cosmology and identity are associated, but they have independent—and sometimes opposite—effects on Americans’ political beliefs.     

Contesting Chineseness: An Examination of Religion and National Identity in Mainland China

For citizens of many countries around the world, religion is a necessary—though often contested—component of their national identity. From the vantage point of the symbolic boundaries approach, we argue that the Chinese government and various other social actors are in contestation to define “Chineseness” in religious terms. Using data from the 2007 Spiritual Life Study of Chinese Residents, this study explores the extent to which religion functions as a constitutive part of Chinese national identity. We find that the effectiveness of the Chinese government's demarcation of the symbolic boundaries around Chineseness related to religion varies across religious groups. Believers of each religion are likely to be strong advocates for their own religion's connection to Chinese national identity. Among the religions, traditional Chinese religions tend to demonstrate a stronger affinity with one another than with Christianity. Daoists are a particularly strong contestant in aligning Daoism with Chineseness, to the extent that they discredit the other religions’ suitability for the Chinese. We discuss the implications of these findings and point out directions for future research.     

Implicit Religion: A Contemporary Theory for the Relationships between Religion,State, and Society

This article demonstrates that the term ‘implicit religion’ provides an effective way to explore some of the philosophies and ideologies common to church, state, and society and to explain the mutual influence of traditional religion, civil religion, and folk religion in the creation of a national identity. Examples of church–state interactions from three continents are provided and variations in the definition of a national church are discussed. The effect of these variations on cross-cultural studies in religion, state, and society are assessed. The article concludes by examining the potential of the construct of implicit religion for bridging the different historical and cultural understandings of religion.     

Religion,Health, and the Psychology of Religion: How the Research on Religion and Health Helps Us Understand Religion

An increasing replication of studies find a correlation between religious belief and practice and mental and physical health and longevity. This paper discusses some of the implications of this research for the ways in which religion might understood psychologically. Most interpretations of this data focus on the presence of one or more mediating variables. This paper argues that the presence of these mediating factors helps us understand more precisely some of the ways in which religion actually does impact on human life and in what the psychological uniqueness of religion actually consists.