Chen, Z., Cowden, R. G., & Streib, H. (2023). More spiritual than religious: Concurrent and longitudinal relations with personality traits, mystical experiences, and other individual characteristics Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 1025938

People who self-identify as predominantly spiritual constitute a considerable and well-established part of the religious landscape in North America and Europe. Thus, further research is needed to document predictors, correlates, and outcomes associated with self-identifying primarily as a spiritual person. In the following set of studies, we contribute to some of these areas using data from German and United States adults. Study 1 (n = 3,491) used cross-sectional data to compare four religious/spiritual (R/S) self-identity groups—more religious than spiritual (MRTS), more spiritual than religious (MSTR), equally religious and spiritual (ERAS), and neither religious nor spiritual (NRNS)—on sociodemographic characteristics and a range of criterion variables (i.e., Big Five personality traits, psychological well-being, generativity, mystical experiences, religious schemata). In Study 2 (n = 751), we applied the analytic template for outcome-wide longitudinal designs to examine associations of the four R/S self-identifications with a range of subsequent outcomes (assessed approximately 3 years later) that were largely comparable to the criterion variables assessed in Study 1. The cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from these complementary studies provide further evidence of differences between these four categories of R/S self-identification, including strong evidence in both studies of an association between the MSTR self-identity and mysticism.

Während des jährlichen Treffens der Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) in Baltimore, MD, USA im November 2022 konnte sich das internationale Team erstmal wieder in persona zusammenfinden! Von links nach rechts: Matthew Durham (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC)), Dr. Barbara Keller (Universität Bielefeld), Prof. Dr. Heinz Streib (Universität Bielefeld), Dr. Ramona Bullik (Universität Bielefeld), William Andrews (UTC), Prof. Dr. Ralph W. Hood (UTC), Dr. Christopher Silver (University of the South, Sewanee), und Dr. Zhuo Job Chen (University of North Carolina at Charlotte).

Streib, H., Hood, R. W., Keller, B., Csöff, R.-M., & Silver, C. (2009). Deconversion. Qualitative and quantitative results from cross-cultural research in Germany and the United States of America. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

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This book presents case studies and empirical data of a phenomenon which increasingly gains popularity in Western societies: deconversion. There is, the authors argue, no better word than deconversion to describe processes of disengagement from religious orientations, because these have much in common with conversion; Termination of membership may eventually be the final step of deconversion, but it involves biographical and psychological dynamics which can and need to be reconstructed by qualitative approaches and analyzed by quantitative instruments. In the Bielefeld-based Cross-Cultural Study on Deconversion, disengagement processes from a variety of religious orientations in the U.S.A. and in Germany were examined, ranging from well-established religious organizations to new religious and fundamentalist groups. Nearly 1,200 persons participated in the study and were interviewed from 2002 to 2005. In the focus of the study are 100 deconverts from the U.S.A. and from Germany who were examined with narrative interviews, faith development interviews and an extensive questionnaire. For case study elaboration, the study followed a research design with an innovative triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data. Four chapters, corresponding to four types of deconversion, present 21 case studies. The highlights of the research project are new data on spirituality - the deconverts in particular appear to prefer a "more spiritual than religious" self-identification - and in-depth analyses of a variety of deconversion narratives with special focus on personality factors, motivation, attitudes, religious development, psychological well-being and growth, religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism. The results of this project which was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft are of special relevance for counselling and pastoral care, for religious education and for people concerned with administration and management of religious groups and churches, but also for a wider audience interested in contemporary changes in the religious fields in the U.S.A. and Germany.

Bullik, R. (2022). A Faithful Journey: Following a Married Couple’s Religious Trajectory over the Adult Lifespan. Religions, 13(8), 673. MDPI AG.

Abstract: This article addresses the question of how religious narrative identity and subjective religiosity change over the course of 15 years. The cases portrayed are deconverts who have changed their religious affiliations multiple times. It was carved out what led to their deconversion and what remains as a core of their faith after they have turned away from organized religion for good. Interviews were conducted at three time points and were analyzed using content analysis. It became clear that the needs and expectations of the two individuals differ highly, as well as the reasons for turning away from a religious community; yet, what could be identified as a common core in this joint faithful journey is their need to live their religiosity, now in a private setting.

Religiöse Deutungen haben die militärische Eskalation in der Ukraine seit 2014 auf Schritt und Tritt begleitet. Seit der Annexion der Krim wurden russische Gebietsansprüche mit Verweis auf das kanonische Territorium der Russisch-orthodoxen Kirche geltend gemacht. Auch Putins Negation ukrainischer Souveränität basiert wesentlich auf der Vorstellung einer kirchlich-religiös vermittelten kulturellen Einheit von Russen und Ukrainern. Angesichts dessen ist es kaum verwunderlich, dass der ohnehin schon starke Zusammenhang zwischen religiöser und nationaler Identitätsbildung in der Ukraine konstitutiv für religiöse Praxis wurde. Ausdrücklich als nationales Sicherheitsinteresse beschrieb etwa Präsident Poroschenko seine Bemühungen um eine von Moskau unabhängige (autokephale) Orthodoxe Kirche der Ukraine. Die Gründung dieser Kirche im Winter 2018/19 hat nicht nur die religiöse Landschaft der Ukraine und das Verhältnis zum Moskauer Patriarchat, sondern die Orthodoxie weltweit erschüttert und bleibt nicht ohne Auswirkungen auf die politischen Strategien der Konfliktparteien.

Thema der Podiumsdiskussion ist die Relevanz von Religion und Kirchen im Kontext des Ukrainekriegs. Einerseits soll Religion als identitätsstiftendes Merkmal im Rahmen des ukrainischen (und russischen) nation building der jüngeren Vergangenheit beleuchtet und kritisch hinterfragt werden. Andererseits wird es darum gehen, wie sich religiöse Praxis und kirchliches Engagement unter Bedingungen von Konfrontation und Krieg gestalten und verändern – und welche Auswirkungen die aktuellen Entwicklungen für ökumenische und interkonfessionelle Beziehungen in Osteuropa und in der ganzen Welt haben. Die wissenschaftliche Klärung mündet in dem Interesse, Chancen und Grenzen der religiösen Orientierung im Blick auf Deeskalation und Wege zu einer Konfliktlösung durch Verhandlungen auszuloten.

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(BiUP 2021, 835 S.) Open Access

Politik steht zunehmend unter dem Einfluss von Religion, insbesondere in Nordund Südamerika. Führer der evangelikal-pfingstlichen Bewegung verschaffen sich dort immer mehr politische Macht und bilden eine religiöse Rechte. Aus dem Leiden an sozialer Ungleichheit formen sie ein rückschrittliches Wählerpotenzial und durchlöchern die Grenze zwischen Religion und säkularer Politik. Dagegen positionieren sich auf der Linken religiöse Graswurzelbewegungen, die die Erfahrungen sozialer Ungleichheit in ethischen Protest umleiten. Heinrich Wilhelm Schäfer analysiert diese religiös-politischen Kämpfe um gesellschaftliche Macht und Laizität in den Amerikas und diskutiert die Möglichkeiten eines post-säkularen Dialogs.

Mit Studien zur Dekonversion (2002-2007) und zur Bedeutung von „Spiritualität“ (2009-2014) haben Professor Heinz Streib und sein Team die deutsch-amerikanische Forschungskooperation der Universität Bielefeld mit Professor Ralph W. Hood und seinem Team in der Psychologie der University of Tennessee at Chattanooga aufgebaut. Mit intensiven Interviews und umfangreichen Fragebogen wurden Veränderungen und Migrationsprozesse im religiösen Feld beleuchtet. In anschließenden Studien (2014-2017; 2018-2021) konnten diese biographisch-rekonstruktiven religionspsychologischen Studien in Längsschnittuntersuchungen weitergeführt werden, wie exemplarisch das soeben erschienene Buch Deconversion Revisited zeigt.

Mit Drittmitteln von insgesamt ca. 1,2 Millionen Euro ermöglichen nun die John Templeton Foundation (USA) und die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft die Weiterführung der bereits etablierten Forschung in die Jahre 2022 bis 2024. Dabei wird das Sample vergrößert und die längsschnittliche Untersuchung um eine Welle erweitert. Die Untersuchung verspricht auch Ergebnisse darüber, wie sich religiös-weltanschauliche Entwicklung auf die Veränderung des Gottesbildes bzw. der Vorstellungen von Transzendenz auswirkt. In einem zweiten Fokus geht das Projekt der Frage nach, inwiefern religiös-weltanschauliche Entwicklung einen Beitrag zur Reduktion von Vorurteilen und Xenophobie leisten kann.

New grants from the John Templeton Foundation (JTF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) enable the research teams at Bielefeld University, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to continue with our longitudinal investigation of faith development in the years 2022 to 2024. Here is an Executive Summary:

The questions that this project will have the potential to answer is, whether, how, why, and when in their lifetime individuals are changing their religion and worldview. We interpret such changes as migrations between developmentally ordered religious styles and religious types. While in our current project we could demonstrate that there is faith development and initially identify predictors and outcomes, this project has a focus on two particularly interesting outcomes of faith development: (a) changes in people’s images of God and, in more general and inclusive terms, their symbolization of transcendence, and (b) their changes in prejudice and, with reference to the philosophy of the Alien, their responses to the Strange. We assume that faith development results in a narrative identity that affords a wise and humble response to the Strange we call xenosophia. This research is a contribution to answer these and other key questions using longitudinal data from Germany and the U.S.A. that were gathered in previous and current multi-method projects, which were based on faith development interviews (FDI) and questionnaire data (which include measures for personality, well-being, religious schema, mysticism, etc.).

This new project phase continues this research into a fourth wave of field work and will add another n = 460 (50% US and 50% German) longitudinal re-interviews with the FDI. This will furnish longitudinal analyses with sufficient statistical power. In addition, we survey general population samples of n = 1,250 in both U.S.A. and Germany using our questionnaire, which now includes scales for intellectual humility, God images, and questions for xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia and other prejudice. Thus, we may be able to relate our questions of religious change to a larger population context, and demonstrate the contribution of faith development research to psychological investigation in domains such as wisdom, God images, and prejudice.

Streib, H., Chen, Z. J., & Hood, R. W. (2021). Faith development as change in religious types: Results from three-wave longitudinal data with faith development interviews. Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, online-first, 1-10.

(Link to post-print)

Faith, as a way of how people understand God and the world and make or discover meaning in their life, is characterized by individual differences and changes over the lifetime. Our research investigates these changes over the lifespan in terms of hierarchically ordered types that are the elements in our developmental model, which is a critical advancement and modification of Fowler’s theory of faith development. This study is the first to investigate whether there is development in faith over the adult lifespan and to identify predictors of developmental change. Our mixed-method design used three-wave longitudinal data (mean lag time 10.47 years from Wave 1 to Wave 3). A sample of N = 75 participants were interviewed with the faith development interview three times and each time answered comprehensive questionnaires. Results evidenced faith development over the lifespan: a majority in our data moved to a higher type, while change to a lower type did occur. Openness to experience and the religious schema truth of text and teachings were potential antecedents for faith development.