Measures of the Different Aspects of Spirituality/Religiosity

A topical collection in Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This collection belongs to the section "Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences".

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Editor


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Guest Editor
Professorship Quality of Life, Spirituality and Coping, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, Gerhard-Kienle-Weg 4, 58313 Herdecke, Germany
Interests: mind-body medicine approaches; spirituality and health; quality of life; coping; questionnaire development; integrative medicine; clinical studies; health service research; spiritual dryness; awe
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

After three successful Special Issues on measures of spirituality and religiosity, it is wonderful to see that the fascination with addressing the different aspects and layers of spirituality (i.e., core experiences, attitudes and behaviours, practices, and rituals) is still vital. Several of the established instruments are still in use in international studies, some of the newer ones have been translated into different languages and implemented in international studies, and some new ones have been introduced to the community of researchers and practitioners.

Spirituality as a multidimensional construct is not a fixed topic; it depends on the religious background and is also shaped by culture. Additionally, nonreligious persons may have an interest in spiritual issues, but not in established and often dogmatic traditions. However, what is relevant to them, how do they live their ‘‘secular spirituality’’, and how can we make this measurable?

In this expanding field, not only the ‘positive’ aspects of spirituality/religiosity are analyzed but also the challenging aspects of faith, struggles with the religious community, the dogmatic aspects of faith, and phases of spiritual dryness or ‘tired boredom’ on the spiritual path. These topics are rather new, and only a few instruments can operationalize this often-neglected field.

All these different aspects need to be addressed and investigated. Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit manuscripts that address how these different aspects can be operationalized and measured, either with old, new, or borrowed original instruments or their culturally adapted translations. Newly developed measures are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Arndt Büssing
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • measures
  • instruments
  • validation
  • translation
  • culture
  • religion
  • faith
  • spirituality
  • practices
  • rituals
  • experience

Published Papers (2 papers)

2022

Jump to: 2021

13 pages, 831 KiB  
Article
Explanation of the Trends and Recent Changes in Spanish Society Regarding Belief in God: Atheism, Agnosticism, Deism, Skepticism, and Belief
by Gonzalo Herranz de Rafael and Juan S. Fernández-Prados
Religions 2022, 13(11), 1086; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111086 - 11 Nov 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2858
Abstract
This article deals with the different religious counterpoints or beliefs that traditions of philosophy and thought have fundamentally defined around five positions or options: atheist, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, and belief. The aim is to explore the sociological conditioning factors behind these profiles, offering [...] Read more.
This article deals with the different religious counterpoints or beliefs that traditions of philosophy and thought have fundamentally defined around five positions or options: atheist, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, and belief. The aim is to explore the sociological conditioning factors behind these profiles, offering a meaningful explanation to help us understand the trends and recent changes in Spanish society. To this end, we analyzed two surveys, for the years 2008 and 2018, of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) on Religion in the context of Spain. The results highlight the variables of gender, age, and ideology to describe specific profiles, explain religious choices, and understand trends. In addition to the trend towards secularization, the results manifest an increase in the number of atheists and a decrease of believers, show increasing radicalization and right-wing ideology among believers, and a greater grounding of the meaning of life in the existence of God alone. Full article
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2021

Jump to: 2022

24 pages, 674 KiB  
Article
Is God Listening to My Prayers? Initial Validation of a Brief Measure of Perceived Divine Engagement and Disengagement in Response to Prayer
by Julie J. Exline, Joshua A. Wilt, Valencia A. Harriott, Kenneth I. Pargament and Todd W. Hall
Religions 2021, 12(2), 80; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12020080 - 27 Jan 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3540
Abstract
Does God listen and respond to prayers? This project provided initial validation for a brief measure of perceived divine engagement and disengagement in response to prayer. As part of a larger project on religious/spiritual struggles among U.S. undergraduates, we used Sample 1 ( [...] Read more.
Does God listen and respond to prayers? This project provided initial validation for a brief measure of perceived divine engagement and disengagement in response to prayer. As part of a larger project on religious/spiritual struggles among U.S. undergraduates, we used Sample 1 (n = 400) for exploratory factor analysis and Sample 2 (n = 413) for confirmatory factor analysis and initial validity testing. A two-factor model with four items per factor provided acceptable fit. On average, participants reported more divine engagement than disengagement. They endorsed items about God listening more than those about God responding. Divine engagement showed strong positive associations with religiousness and positive-valence variables involving God. Divine disengagement showed strong positive associations with variables suggesting divine struggle or distance. Importantly, both subscales also showed evidence of incremental validity: Divine engagement predicted positive-valence God variables (e.g., secure attachment, collaborative religious coping, gratitude to God, and awareness of God) even when controlling for religiousness and positive God concepts and attitudes. Divine disengagement predicted more spiritual struggles and more negative-valence and distance-related God variables (divine struggle, anxious and distant attachment, and self-directing religious coping) even when controlling for doubt about God’s existence, negative God images, anger/disappointment toward God, and concern about God’s disapproval. In short, this brief new measure shows promise as a tool to assess beliefs about God’s responsiveness to prayer. Full article
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