Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Compass
http://scp.sagepub.com/
Questioning the Need for a Special Methodology for the Study of Eastern
Orthodoxy
Sergej Flere
Social Compass 2008 55: 84
DOI: 10.1177/0037768607086500
The online version of this article can be found at:
http://scp.sagepub.com/content/55/1/84
Published by:
http://www.sagepublications.com
On behalf of:
Additional services and information for Social Compass can be found at:
Email Alerts: http://scp.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts
Subscriptions: http://scp.sagepub.com/subscriptions
Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav
Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
Citations: http://scp.sagepub.com/content/55/1/84.refs.html
social
co
compass
55(1), 2008, 84100
Sergej FLERE
85
Introduction
86
sizing Svetosavlje (the teaching and tradition of St. Sava, the founder of the
Serbian Orthodox Church in the 13th century) (Vrcan, 1995). According to
Vrcan, the roots of the specicity of Serbian Orthodoxy have to do with its
ante-murale position towards Roman Catholicism and Islam and the
``mission'', or proselytic activity of the latter religions (Vrcan, 1995: 358)
towards Serbian Orthodoxy, bringing about a sense of challenge and
endangerment among Serbian Orthodox believers. In contrast, on the basis
of sociological institutional and empirical comparison, Blagojevic holds
that the religious situation in Serbian and Russian Orthodoxy is basically
similar (2005: 391). All this does not add up to a justied expectation of substantial peculiarities in Serbian Orthodox religiosity within Eastern Orthodoxy, except possibly in the matter of the link between political/state/
ethnic loyalty and religion, i.e. civil religion.
Both Radisavljevic Cipirazovic and Blagojevic speak of a major religious
revival among Serbs in Serbia during the past two decades (Blagojevic , 2005;
Radisavljevic Cipirazovic, 2002). It should not be forgotten, however, that by
the end of this period (19992001) Serbia was in 21st position as to religiosity
among the 41 Christian countries of Europe, according to a measure
considered by Stark as central in the study of religion (Stark, 2004) (``How
important is God in your life?'', World Value Survey; sample: 41 countries).
This means that Serbian religiosity would appear to be at an average level
within European Christendom as to intensity. By the same measure, amongst
European countries with a Christian tradition, other Orthodox countries are
to be found both among the more religious (e.g. Romania and Georgia) and
the less religious (e.g. Bulgaria and Russia). This does not yet speak either in
favour or against Tomka's assertions, but it does indicate that Orthodox
countries do vary just as ``Western Christian'' ones do.
Method
Procedure
The instrument applied was a questionnaire containing varied items, concentrating on various measures of religiosity and its possible correlates (e.g.
anxiety, gender orientation, delinquency, demographic variables and so
on). The lling out of the questionnaire was conducted in groups of 10 to
40 students under the supervision of research team members, and took
about 40 minutes. It was carried out in the spring of 2005. The questionnaires
were translated from Slovenian into the other languages and translated back
into Slovenian.
Sample
Data were collected from undergraduate university students, primarily in the
social sciences and humanities, in four dierent cultural settings. Out of
the entire sample (N 1,086), only aliates of the major religions in the
particular environments were chosen for this study. In this way our sample
87
Measures
The questionnaire contained items on various facets of religiosity and
socialization, only some of which will be pertinent for this purpose. We
will indicate the nature of the measures when they are presentated.
Plan of analysis
We will consider a number of assertions alleged conceptually by Tomka, and
conduct analyses appropriate to assessing how well founded these assertions
are, always bearing in mind the potential for establishing the nature of
and dierences between the two ``religious cultures'', and the rationale for
separate methodologies. So, taking the dierences proposed by Tomka,
we will analyse (1) the relationship between traditionalism and religiosity,
(2) religious consequentiality, (3) quest religon, (4) religious experience,
and (5) civil religionall points where Tomka holds that fundamental dierences between the two religious cultures exist. We will present the individual
measures and scales as we address Tomka's assertions.
Results
88
TABLE 1
Alpha coecients for traditionalism statements, for religious belief statements and for
the summation of traditionalism and religious belief statements, by country confessional
samples
4 traditionalism items
5 religious belief statements
9 combined items
Serbian
Orthodox
Slovenian
Catholics
US
Protestants
.70
.79
.79
.66
.82
.79
.63
.83
.68
89
13
Traditionalism
12
11
10
9
Slovenian
Catholics
Serbian
Orthodox
US Protestants
FIGURE 1
Traditionalism among the aliates of the three confessions
amalgamate better among the two European Christian samples, whereas the
magnitude of traditionalism is highest among the third, the Protestant
sample. Thus, we cannot conclude that Orthodoxy is truly permeated by
traditionalism, as traditionalism itself does not prevail, not attaining the
normative mean among the Orthodox (or elsewhere).
Consequentiality of religiosity
``Religion . . . is actualized in all aspects of life'', arms Tomka, describing
the Eastern Orthodox (2006: 258). In the language of the sociology of religion, this means it is a religion of particular consequentiality, that it permeates all aspects of life, and religion is not limited only to services or to belief
to being a fragment without relevance to other behaviour, beliefs and
attitudes (Glock and Stark, 1965). This would mean that the Orthodox are
more consequential in their religious committment.
We will test this by a series of items on preparedness to undertake consequential acts, by which religionists ``counterbalance'' the mercy and benevolence they receive from the Almighty (see Table 2).
The results in Table 2 demonstrate that in all three populations, means
cannot be considered equal for any of the observed variables. According to
the F values, variations among samples are greatest for sacricing life, a particularly indicative item (the ultimate sacrice, tapping into the destructive
and belligerent potential of religion), restraining from sexual relations and
.ssengnilliw mumixam
54.3
c
18.2
a
34.2
a
73.2
a
40.4
a
74.3
46.3
FFARPV
naeM
11.3
c
55.2
c
03.2
b
22.2
c
56.3
c
32.3
23.3
stnatsetoP SU
FFA
naeM
.tnereid yltnacingis era srettel tpircsrepus tnereid htiw snaem ,meti hcae roF
5 ,ssengnilliw fo ecnesba latot 1 :elacs epyt-trekiL tniop-ev a no derusaem erew smeti SRW neves llA
.)elacs 51 a no evoba dna 4 feileb suoigiler( setailA suoigileR yltnanimoderP dna yreV :FFARPV
setailA :FFA
:setoN
15.1
a
47.1
b
27.1
b
86.1
a
78.1
b
23.2
30.2
b
58.1
b
80.2
a
70.2
a
02.2
a
04.2
a
00.3
35.2
66.1
a
88.1
a
50.2
a
48.1
a
76.2
a
38.2
34.2
a
10.2
a
42.2
a
63.2
a
61.2
a
52.3
a
34.3
57.2
FFA
naeM
scilohtaC nainevolS
FFARPV
naeM
FFA
naeM
FFARPV
naeM
xodohtrO naibreS
selpmas
lanoissefnoc yrtnuoc dna meti yb ,)SRW( ecircas suoigiler rof ssengnilliw ni suoigiler yletanimoderp dna yrev dna ,setaila rof eulav naeM
2 ELBAT
91
not consuming certain foods and drinks (the latter two we may consider as
items indicating a renouncing of hedonism). The dierences are smallest in
the matters of rejecting medical interventions, renouncing technical achievements and extrinsic social orientation.
Signicant dierences can be noted between samples in most instances,
but they are lacking twice between Slovenian Catholics and the Serbian
Orthodox and once between Slovenian Catholics and American Protestants.
Controlling for the strength of religiosity does somewhat diminish the dierences among the samples, since two instances of signicance of dierences
between the means disappear. This certainly does not amount to a picture
in line with a contention on cultural dierences between Eastern and Western
Christianity as to the consequentiality of religiosity. Consequentiality is in all
cases linked to the magnitude of religious belief. This can be discerned from
Figure 2.
The data in Figure 2, an error graph, indicate a steep rise of consequentiality in line with religious belief among aliates. The rise continues among
the groups stating various levels of belief. Let us also mention the correlations for the relationship beliefconsequentiality where, for Slovenian
Catholics, r :444**, for the Serbian Orthodox, r :445** and for the
American Protestants, r :208**. We nd that the Serbian Orthodox and
the Slovenian Catholics reach almost identical very high values, in comparison to more moderate values for American Protestants. This could be
attributable to more variety in religiosity in the two European environments
23
21
Consequentiality
19
17
15
13
11
9
US Protestants
Slovenian Catholics
Serbian Orthodox
7
5
1
2
3
Religious belief
FIGURE 2
Religious belief and religious consequentiality
92
(M for religious belief 12:9, SD 5:5 for Slovenian Catholics, and 15:2,
SD 6:5 for Serbian Orthodox), in contrast to the American Protestants,
where highs predominate (M 20:3, SD 5:1) (range 525).
``Quest''
According to Tomka, in the West, ``religion became increasingly a quest for
truth'' (2006: 259). In the parlance of the psychology of religion, this would
amount to a quest for religious orientation (Batson and Schoenrade, 1991)
prevailing in the West, in contrast to Eastern Orthodoxy. Batson holds
that quest forms part of the mature religiosity that Allport did not include
in his intrinsic orientation, and that quest amounts to an ``honest facing of
existential questions, while at the same time resisting clear cut, pat answers'',
being ``an open ended search without exclusive reliance on traditional
answers'' (1991: 421), which is a description that ts well with Tomka. We
will apply the entire 12-item Batson and Schoenrade (1991) quest religious
orientation scale to those of our respondents showing ``at least a moderate
interest in religion'' and by using the factor scores for the rst factor of
quest religiosity see how the three confessions fare as to questing (see
Table 3).
We note that quest orientation among religionists is more frequent with
American Protestant piety, even though the normative mean is reached in
no sample. The dierence between the other two samples is without
signicance.
We still need to address how quest religious orientation is related to known
measures of religiosity in our samples (see Table 4).
In Table 4 we note a great variety of relationships, in marked contrast
to the relatively small dierences in means in Table 3. Only among the
Slovenian Catholics do we note a clear positive relationship between questing and measures of religiosity, whereas the relationship is not signicant
among the Orthodox in any of the instances, and it is signicant but negative
in 3 of the 4 American instances. Since the data for the entire samples are
used in this analysis, we may assume that it is the magnitude of religiosity,
the highest in the American case, that explains the situation. Critics of
TABLE 3
Means and standard deviations for factor scores of quest religious orientation among the
three confessions
Means
SD
Serbian
Orthodox
Slovenian
Catholics
US
Protestants
2.59a
.65
2.62a
.65
2.89b
.62
Notes:
Range: 15, where 1 absence of quest, 5 complete presence of quest.
For each item, means with dierent superscript letters are signicantly dierent.
Only religious subjects considered (religious belief 3 and over on 15 pro trait scale).
93
TABLE 4
Zero order correlations for the relationship between quest religious orientation and
selected measures of religiosity, by three confessional samples
Personal prayer
Church attendance
Do you believe in God?
Intrinsic orientation
Serbian
Orthodox
Slovenian
Catholics
US
Protestants
.003
.076
.006
.015
.255**
.219**
.254**
.245**
.181**
.120
.164**
.340**
Notes:
** Correlation is signicant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Range of all questions is 15 in the pro-trait direction.
4. Religious experience
Tomka claims, invoking the theologian V. Lossky, that religious experience
holds a special place in Orthodox religiosity. ``Orthodoxy can be understood
as a religion of experience . . .'' (Tomka, 2006: 260), and he further explains
that ``Orthodoxy is a religion of experience . . .'' (2006: 263). This is in contrast to Western Christianity, where religion ``became increasingly a quest for
truth, a rationalized intellectual enterprise'' (2006: 259). We should expect a
greater presence and intensity of religious experience on the part of the
Orthodox, in contrast to quest religiosity among Western Christians.
We will study the issue of experience, which Glock and Stark (1965) hold
to be a universal component of religiosity, by means of the statement, ``I have
often had the experience of Divine presence'', itself an element of the
Gorsuch and McPherson scale of intrinsic orientation (1989) among aliates
and the highest class of religious believers (as to control for the possible inuence of weak belief on the subject of our study). We chose this statement
because it indicates no aect inclination during experience (see Table 5).
The means for the Serbian Orthodox are to be found between the
Slovenian Catholic lows and the other Western Christian group highs concerning this elementary form of experience, the Orthodox being closer to
Slovenian Catholics. It is probable that it is the magnitude of religiosity
that explains the variation, as when we observe maximum religious belief
94
TABLE 5
Means and standard deviations for agreement with the statement ``I have often had the
experience of Divine presence'', by country confessional samples
Aliates
Maximum believers
Serbian
Orthodox
Slovenian
Catholics
US
Protestants
2.6b/1.4
3.2a/1.3
2.1a/0.8
2.9a/1.1
3.7c/1.0
3.8c/1.0
Notes:
Range: 15, where 1 full disagreement, 5 full agreement; maximum religious believers 5
on a 15 pro-trait scale.
Figures before the slash indicate means, gures after the slash indicate standard deviations.
For each item, means with dierent superscript letters are signicantly dierent.
5. Civil religion
Tomka holds that under traditional conditions, which still apply to the
Orthodox, ``history (is understood) as the fulllment of God's original intentions, a holy task . . . God's chosen nation'' (2006: 256). This would be in line
with what Vrcan also held of Serbian Orthodoxy (1995).
In the sociological study of religion, this ts with the notion of civil religion
rather well, if we take into consideration, for example, Bellah's words about
civil religion being ``a set of religious beliefs, symbols and rituals growing out
of the American historical experience interpreted in the dimension of transcendence'' (1968: 389). Bellah somewhat expands his denition and its
scope when he contends that it is ``that religious dimension found, I think,
in the life of every people, through which it interprets its historical experience
in the light of transcendent reality'' (1975: 153). This notion is closely tied to
the idea of the ``covenant'' and ``chosen people.''
We will test whether civil religion items structurally amalgamate in the
same way among the Orthodox as among Westerners, and moreover we
will see whether civil religion is more prevalent among the Orthodox.
Our attempt to formulate a scale of civil religion comprised the following
items: `` Our country has a special covenant with God'', `` It is not really
possible to be a good patriot without being a true follower of my religion'',
``It might be said, that our country does not comply with all of its religious
duties'', `` God has intervened in the history of my nation by testing its true
faith'', and ``My church has been very important for the survival of my
nation through history''. This resulted in the following alphas for the
6-item scale: for Slovenian Catholics :84, for Serbian Orthodox :80 and
for American Protestants :78. Scale requirements as to homogeneity in all
95
TABLE 6
Means and standard deviations for civil religion scale, by country confessional samples
Country confessional sample
Mean
Std. Deviation
Slovenian Catholics
Serbian Orthodox
US Protestants
11.3b/15.1b
16.0a/18.8a
18.9c/20.2c
4.6/4.9
5.5/4.8
5.4/4.6
Notes:
Scale is composed of 6 items (each one is a 5-point pro-trait one), without any particular
weighting.
Range 630, where 6 complete absence, 30 full presence.
Data before the slash pertain to all aliates, after the slash: maximum religious believers 5 on
a 15 pro-trait scale.
For each item, means with dierent superscript letters are signicantly dierent.
96
instruments, some of which are close to being ``religious doctrine free and
open ended making them usable with virtually any Christian denomination
and perhaps with non-Christian religions'' (Donahue, 1985: 415).
Furthermore, studies of Christianity (and of other religions) may be
conducted qualitatively and quantitatively, and political impact can also
be studied. This may demand particular methodological approaches, including the study of the governance of religious entities, of their legal status, of
their political impact, of judicial rulings pertaining to religion etc. But the
Huntingtonian assertion that ``Eastern Christianity'' is so dierent as to
need a special methodology does not seem warranted. Even though Huntington's popular assertion may function at the level of the analysis of world
politics, the sociological study of religious life is a dierent matter. Tomka's
assertions are poorly based in sociological ndings (his assertions are practically nowhere to be found in Borowik, 2002, nor in Greeley, 1995).
In contrast, most important dierences among the samples have to do with
the strength, the intensity of religiosity in the environment, even producing
structural pattern dierences (as noted in Table 3). This indicates that the
strength of religiosity in the environment is the most probable explanatory
variable, whether the society is a ``moral community'' or not (Stark, Kent
and Doyle, 1982), and not confession or ``religious culture'' (at least within
Christendom). A similar nding was reached by Donahue, according to
whom the strength of substantial (intrinsic) religiosity determines the direction of the relationship with other variables (1985: 404).
Beside these ndings, we oer another line in the study of particuliarities of
Orthodoxy.
Punishing God
We asked respondents to express their position on the statement ``Sometimes
I feel God is angry at me''. This statement is indicative of guilt religiosity and
of a perception of the punishing, vengeful nature of God, as presented in the
Old Testament. Such an understanding prevailed during the rst centuries
of Christianity, whereas the justice-rationalizing ideas of Purgatory in
Catholicism and of mercy in Protestantism have modied this idea, including
the literal understanding of the Last Judgment. Serbian respondents scored
highest on this element of religious belief and feeling (see Figure 3).
The error bar indicates a signicant peak among Orthodox Serb believers.
Tamhane's post hoc test reveals a mean dierence between Orthodox Serb
believers and Catholic Slovenians of :36 (sig: :011), and between Orthodox Serbs and Protestant Americans of :37 (sig: :001).
This is not a chance nding, it has to do with the understanding of God.
Studying popular Serbian piety, ethnologist Bandic writes that among
Serbs ``Christian beings have taken on pagan traits, signicantly contrasting
to their likeness in the Christian teaching. The Christian God himself is no
exception'' (1991: 146). Further, he writes that God `` . . . curses those who
have oended him . . . he is more like a mighty ruler . . . and no one skips
his justice'' (1991: 193). The Serbian Orthodox popular comprehension of
God is primarily one lled by fear of punishment. This is how one is
97
3.0
2.8
2.6
2.4
2.2
Slovenian
Catholics
Serbian
Orthodox
US Protestants
FIGURE 3
Means of agreement with the statement ``Sometimes I feel God is angry at me'', by country
confessional samples of devoted believers
Note: only religious belief at levels 4 and 5 (range 15) of the three country confessional groups
are considered.
Circles indicate means; vertical lines indicate standard deviations.
meant to understand the use of the saying ``Ima Boga!'' (God does exist!),
which is invoked exclusively when someone is unexpectedly punished or
aicted by a misfortune after having committed deeds considered inadmissible, but who has until then escaped due punishment. This may be the basis
for understanding some other traits of Serbian Orthodox belief, including the
situation we encountered with religious motivation.
Possibly this dierence between Eastern and Western Christians was not to
be expected theologically, as Eastern Christianity (in contrast to Western)
teaches that humans did not inherit Adam's sin directly, but ``it was the
results of the sin of our rst human parents . . . that passed on to human
beings'' (Campbell, 1996: 49). The Orthodox doctrine of theosis may theologically sound anthropologically optimistic, as it describes the possibility
that humans might attain godliness, but in fact it underscores the sinfulness
of man, particularly as it doesn't indicate a way, a method of regaining godliness. Furthermore, such a nding is only to be expected, considering that in
general Orthodoxy is relatively more true to the original Christian stress on
the sinful, fallen nature of man and his loss of holiness, loss of likeness to
God etc. In addition, one should note again the extent of pre-Christian
belief layers in empirical Orthodoxy. Lossky's presentation of Orthodox
98
NOTES
1.
Tomka does not explain how Eastern Orthodoxy can be a ``new phenomenon''
or similar to one.
REFERENCES
99
100
Tomka, Miklos (2006) ``Is Conventional Sociology of Religion Able to Deal with
Dierences between Eastern and Western European Developments?'', Social
Compass 53(2): 251265.
Vrcan, S. (1995) ``A Christian confession possessed by nationalistic paroxysm: the
case of Serbian Orthodoxy'', Religion 25(4): 357370.
Wul, D. M. (1997) Psychology of Religion. Classic and Contemporary Approaches .
New York: John Wiley.
Sergej FLERE is professor of sociology at the University of Maribor,
Slovenia, and is a long-standing member, and former Council member,
of the ISSR. His recent publications include: ``Is intrinsic religious orientation a culturally specic American Protestant concept? The fusion of
intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation among non-Protestants''
(forthcoming, European Journal of Social Psychology 2008, available at
DOI: 10.1002/ejsp. 437); and ``Gender and religious orientation''
(2007) Social Compass 54(2): 239253. ADDRESS: University of
Maribor, Filozofska fakulteta, 160 Koroska, Sl2000 Maribor, Slovenia.
[email: sergej.ere@uni-mb.si]