Church Attendance and Religious Belief in Postcommunist Societies

Well into the 20th century, leading social thinkers argued that religious beliefs reflected a prescientific worldview that would disappear as scientific rationality spread throughout the world. Though the creationism of traditional religion did give way to evolutionary worldviews, this failed to discredit religion among the general public. Religious markets theory argues that the key to flourishing religiosity is strong religious competition, but recent research found no relationship between religious pluralism and religious attendance. The individualization thesis claims that declining church attendance does not reflect declining religiosity; subjective forms of religion are simply replacing institutionalized ones. But empirical evidence indicates that individual religious belief is declining even more rapidly than church attendance. Secularization’s opponents hold that humans will always need religion. This claim seems true if it is broadened to hold that humans will always need a belief system. Norris and Inglehart argue that as survival becomes more secure, it reduces the demand for religion.

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Emergency Helping and Religious Behavior

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.1976.39.1.151 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 39 (1) ◽

pp. 151-158 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Lawrence V. Annis

Keyword(s):

Religious Belief ◽

Church Attendance ◽

Helping Behavior ◽

Moral Behavior ◽

Religious Behavior ◽

General Psychology ◽

Significant Relationships ◽

Experiment Analysis

Students enrolled in general psychology classes completed a questionnaire and 10 days later participated in an apparently unrelated study which was actually a “lady in distress” experiment. Analysis of the responses of 71 subjects who participated in both parts indicated no significant relationships between helping behavior and literal scriptural belief. No significant effects were observed between helping behavior and responses to the Study of Values Religious scale, or frequencies of prayer and church attendance. The results are discussed in terms of Allport's view of utilitarian as opposed to unifying religious belief and described as supporting Kohlberg's contention that moral behavior develops independent of religious belief.

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Correlations of Religious Belief and Practice with College Students' Tattoo-Related Behavior

Psychological Reports ◽

10.2466/pr0.94.2.425-430 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 94 (2) ◽

pp. 425-430 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Jerome R. Koch ◽

Alden E. Roberts ◽

Myrna L. Armstrong ◽

Donna C. Owen

Keyword(s):

Religious Belief ◽

Church Attendance ◽

Deviant Behavior ◽

Statistical Significance ◽

Large Body ◽

Religious Faith ◽

Public University ◽

Weak Negative Correlation ◽

And Behavior ◽

Attitudes And Behavior

This research builds on a large body of literature which suggests that religious belief and practice suppress deviant behavior. Survey data from 520 undergraduates (64% freshmen and sophomores; 70% female; 80% Euro-American) at a large public university in the southwest were examined for whether students' strength of religious faith, church attendance, or frequency of prayer correlated with their having a tattoo, being interested in tattoos, or being likely to get a (or another) tattoo. Analysis showed strength of religious faith had a weak, negative correlation with having a tattoo, being interested in tattoos, and being likely to get a (or another) tattoo. Church attendance also weakly correlated with a reduced interest in tattooing. Since the strength of the numerous correlations was very low and barely reached statistical significance, religious belief and behavior do not appear to be associated substantively with attitudes and behavior regarding tattoos. This suggests increasing cultural acceptance of tattooing.

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Relationships Among Giving, Church Attendance, and Religious Belief: The Case of the Presbyterian Church (USA)

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion ◽

10.1111/0021-8294.00091 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 765-775 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

John Lunn ◽

Robin Klay ◽

Andrea Douglass

Keyword(s):

Religious Belief ◽

Church Attendance ◽

Presbyterian Church

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Suicide and Changing Values and Beliefs in Ireland

Crisis ◽

10.1027/0227-5910.28.2.82 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

pp. 82-88 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Anne Cleary ◽

Teresa Brannick

Keyword(s):

Suicidal Behavior ◽

Religious Belief ◽

Church Attendance ◽

Traditional Values ◽

Differential Impact ◽

Upward Trend ◽

Social Transformations ◽

Beliefs And Values ◽

Values And Beliefs ◽

Complex Phenomena

Abstract. This paper addresses some of the generalized theories explaining rising suicide rates in Ireland. The conclusion here is that linking suicide patterns to changing beliefs and values is problematic. Church attendance as well as adherence to traditional values remain high in this country compared to European levels, and variations in beliefs and values, especially rural/urban differences, do not fit with general explanations. Moreover, attitudes to value areas fluctuate in that justification for suicide - which showed an upward trend in the 1980s - was reversed in the 1990s, and this may have resulted from increased public focus and debate. Generalized explanations are unlikely to decipher complex phenomena such as suicidal behavior. Religious belief, if protective in relation to suicide, is unlikely to act alone. Social transformations have a differential impact depending on one's socio-economic positioning, which translates ideas of a general male vulnerability to suicide into focused areas of male distress.

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The Romance of the slum: Gender and Cross-Class Communication of Religious Belief, 1880–1920

Studies in Church History ◽

10.1017/s0424208400004101 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

pp. 394-405

Author(s):

M. C. H. Martin

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

Working Class ◽

Religious Belief ◽

Church Attendance ◽

Religious Practice ◽

Late Nineteenth Century ◽

Sunday Schools ◽

Religious Teaching ◽

Late Twentieth ◽

Late Twentieth Century

Despite relatively low working-class church attendance over the nineteenth century, evidence of religious practice in working-class households and a more diffuse religious mentality have been identified by historians, even until the mid or late twentieth century. Yet little analysis has been undertaken into how such a mentality was created. While Cox noted of late nineteenth- century Lambeth that the most successful churches were those which contained vast philanthropic networks, elsewhere he claimed that ‘philanthropy … did little to promote definite Christian belief. Indeed, both he and Williams regarded schools as the primary agency for conveying religious teaching: Cox claiming that Board schools were more effective than Sunday schools, Williams, that Sunday schools provided not only a means of instilling religious belief in children but a form of ‘religion by deputy’ for their parents.

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