Von allen Wahrheiten die Beste. Eine qualitative Untersuchung zur Rekonstruktion esoterischen ›Wissensglaubens‹

Steppacher A. Von allen Wahrheiten die Beste. Eine qualitative Untersuchung zur Rekonstruktion esoterischen ›Wissensglaubens‹. Soziologie. 2021;50(1):85-93

Development in Religious and Non-Religious Biographies from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Bullik R, Özisik S, Steppacher A. Development in Religious and Non-Religious Biographies from a Cross-Cultural Perspective. Journal of Empirical Theology. 2020;33(1):65-82.How do people perceive their own religious, spiritual or atheist biography? This is a question that our research team has been focusing on for nearly two decades. Our developmental perspective critically, but constructively relates to Fowler’s (1981) Faith Development Theory, as described in Streib’s (2001) approach of religious styles, paying tribute to the fact that development is not, in most cases, a linear upward process. By combining Fowler’s structural evaluation method with approaches to content analyses, this paper will show the merit of these qualitative methods when looking at (religious) development in different surroundings. For that purpose, we present case studies with different cultural backgrounds. Their different trajectories and possible commonalities will be shown on a structural as well as on a content level. This approach enables us to reconstruct movement within the religious field and will show how this is displayed on a subjective, biographical level

Religious or Spiritual? Text Analysis of the Free Entries in Defining Religiosity and Spirituality

Progress in psychology of religion and spirituality benefits from advancement and enrichment of definitions. Dozens of definitions of religion and spirituality have been offered in the history of the field, however, most of them were generated from a top-down, theory-driven process. This study utilized a bottom-up approach to examine folk definitions of religion and spirituality and, with the help of text analytic tools, offers a complementary from people’s (vs. scholarly) perspective. Data were free entries of defining “religion” and “spirituality” collected from English-speaking American individuals. Three waves of data were collected. Wave 1 included n = 1,046 individual definitions, Wave 2 included n = 276 individuals, and Wave 3 included n = 214 individuals. Word frequency approaches showed that religion can be best defined as specific organized beliefs whereas spirituality can be defined as relating to personal world and life. Topic Modeling confirmed the distinctiveness of words that went into defining religion versus spirituality. Finally, a dictionary approach using LIWC suggested that the definition of religion involved social connections and power, and a mindset of authority and class. Definition of spirituality involved various human experiences and reflected high level of interest and cognitive complexity. Cohort data suggested a trend that over time definitions of spirituality shifted to focus more on connectedness, personal feelings, and humanity from a previous focus on religious ideas of belief and god

“I still hold that against Him—if he does exist. I can’t get my act together.” Carola, Moving from Middle to Young Old Age

Bullik R, Steppacher A, Keller B. “I still hold that against Him—if he does exist. I can’t get my act together.” Carola, Moving from Middle to Young Old Age. In: Streib H, Keller B, Bullik R, et al., eds. Deconversion Revisited. Biographical Studies and Psycho-metric Analyses Ten Years Later. Research in Contemporary Religion. Vol 33. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2022: 209-234

“I freed myself from this narrow faith.” Leaving God in Young Adulthood to find the Divine later in Life. The Cases of Franziska and Sylvia-Marie

Steppacher A, Bullik R, Keller B, Silver CF. “I freed myself from this narrow faith.” Leaving God in Young Adulthood to find the Divine later in Life. The Cases of Franziska and Sylvia-Marie. In: Streib H, Keller B, Bullik R, et al., eds. Deconversion Revisited. Biographical Studies and Psycho-metric Analyses Ten Years Later. Research in Contemporary Religion. Vol 33. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2022: 139-170

Recent Research on Deconversion

Steppacher A, Streib H, Bullik R, Keller B. Recent Research on Deconversion. In: Streib H, Keller B, Bullik R, et al., eds. Deconversion Revisited. Biographical Studies and Psychometric Analyses Ten Years Later. Research in contemporary religion. Vol 33. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2022: 33-58

Following Deconverts and Traditionalists. Longitudinal Case Study Construction

Keller B, Bullik R, Steppacher A, Streib H, Silver CF. Following Deconverts and Traditionalists. Longitudinal Case Study Construction. In: Streib H, Keller B, Bullik R, et al., eds. Deconversion Revisited. Biographical Studies and Psycho-metric Analyses Ten Years Later. Research in Contemporary Religion. Vol 33. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2022: 83-108

Deconversion Typologies Revisited: Biographical Trajectories Ten Years Later

Keller B, Bullik R, Streib H, Steppacher A, Hood Jr RW. Deconversion Typologies Revisited: Biographical Trajectories Ten Years Later. In: Streib H, Keller B, Bullik R, et al., eds. Deconversion Revisited. Biographical Studies and Psychometric Analyses Ten Years Later. Research in contemporary religion. Vol 33. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; 2022: 287-300

Deconversion Revisited. Biographical Studies and Psycho-metric Analyses Ten Years Later

Streib H, Keller B, Bullik R, et al. Deconversion Revisited. Biographical Studies and Psycho-metric Analyses Ten Years Later. Research in Contemporary Religion. Vol 33 1st ed. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; Brill Germany; 2022