Religious Orientation and Diversity

Defining and Measuring Religious Orientation

In 1967, Allport and Ross coined the terms intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations to clarify the elusive concept of how people enact and espouse religious beliefs. Intrinsically religious people often dedicate their lives, through self-sacrifice, to God (or a higher power). Religion becomes the master motive for one's life. Extrinsically religious individuals use religion to achieve nonreligious ends, such as satisfying external desires including friendships, security, and enhancing social status; religion is one of many guiding forces in one's life. Intrinsically motivated individuals live their religion, whereas extrinsically motivated persons use their religion.

Contemporary religion and psychology researchers have critiqued, refined, and reconceptualized Allport and Ross's religious orientation framework. For example, additional dimensions have included a quest dimension (i.e., one's willingness to question complex ideas and then remain receptive to new perspectives and doubts) and indiscriminately pro-religious, and indiscriminately anti-religious dimensions, which add breadth to the original dichotomy. Some scholars remain lukewarm about religious orientation typologies, claiming such schemas are theoretically deficient, offering nominal insights about psychology or religion.

Scholars not only have offered various definitions of religious orientation but also have attempted to measure it. For example, a survey devised by the National Study of Spirituality in Higher Education identified 10 measures of spirituality and religiousness: charitable involvement, spiritual quest, ecumenical worldviews, ethic of [Page 1832]caring, equanimity, religious struggle, religious commitment, religious/social conservationism, religious skepticism, and religious engagement. These variables provide insights into aspects of one's religious orientation.

While numerous and conflicting approaches to conceptualizing, organizing, and measuring religious orientations persist, there is general agreement that diverse religious orientations complicate efforts to achieve the goal of embracing religious diversity. This goal is particularly important in the United States, since worldwide, it is the most religiously diverse nation.

Philosophical Foundations for Religious Diversity

A brief summary of three distinct religious philosophies reveals the inherent struggles associated with attaining the goal of embracing religious diversity. Religious exclusivists assert that one religion is “right”—claiming other religions are misguided. For example, fundamentalist Christian dogma embraces a theistic system that believes Jesus Christ is the only true way to God; these exclusivists believe only faith in Jesus Christ and the Bible leads to salvation. Thus, subscribers attempt to convince (i.e., convert) members with differing religious orientations to adopt their “true” and universal set of religious principles. For exclusivists, all religions are not equal, and for radical exclusivists, accepting religious differences is demonic and dangerous.

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