Religiosity Questionnaire
Brown 1962
Institutionalization
1. The Church is necessary to establish and preserve concepts of right and wrong.
2. Every person needs to have the feeling of security given by a church.
3. For the vast majority of people‚ in order to live a truly religious life the Church or some such other organized religious body is an essential.
4. The aim of missionaries should be to establish church buildings where religious services and ceremonies can be conducted.
Individualism
1. A man ought to be guided by what his own experience tells him is right rather than by what any institution‚ such as the Church‚ tell s him to do.
2. It is more important for an individual to understand the principles of his personal faith than to have a detailed knowledge of his own denomination.
3. Private devotions are more important in the religious life of a person than is attendance at public church services.
4. True Christianity is seen in the lives of individual men and women rather than in the activities of the Church.
Beliefs about Christ
1. Jesus Christ was God the Son.
2. Jesus changed water in to wine.
3. Jesus Christ was born of a Virgin.
4. Jesus walked upon the water while his disciples waited for him in their boat.
Beliefs about God
1. There is a personal God.
2. The world was created by God.
3. There is a God who is all-powerful.
4. There is a God who is altogether good.
5. God made man out of dust and breathed life in to him.
6. There is no God (personal or impersonal).*
Other Orthodox Christian Beliefs
1. There are spiritual realities of some kind.
2. There is a personal Devil.
3. Evil is a reality.
4. The spirits of human beings continue to exist after the death of their bodies.
5. Attendance at church is a better way of spending Sunday than taking a walk in the country General
Religious Belief
1. Matter is the sole reality. *
2. There are such spiritual beings as angels.
3. Jonah was swallowed by a great fish and after wards emerged a live.
4. Christianity is a better religion than Buddhism.
5. The Bible is literally true in all its parts.
6. There is a Hell in which the wicked will be ever lastingly punished.
7. Right will triumph.
8. There is no life after death.*
* reversed scoring
Orthodox Christian Beliefs‚ general religious Beliefs‚ opinions‚ facts‚ and miscellaneous
I am completely certain that this statement is true.
I am almost certain that this statement is true.
I think that this statement is true‚ but I am not at all certain.
I am completely uncertain about this statement.
I think this statement is false‚ but I am not at all certain.
I am almost certain that this statement is false.
I am completely certain that this statement is false.
This instrument can be found at: Measures of social psychological attitudes
Thouless‚ R. H. (1935). The tendency to certainty in religious belief. British Journal of Psychology‚ 26‚ 16-31.
Brown‚ L.B. (1962). A study of religious Belief. British Journal of Psychology‚ 53‚ 259-272.
Brown‚ L.B. (1966). The structure of religious Belief. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion‚ 5(2)‚ 259-272.
Robinson‚ John P.‚ Shaver‚ Phillip R. (1969). Measures of Political Attitudes. Institute for Social Research‚ University of Michigan/. Ann Arbor‚ Michigan.
Brown‚ L.B. (1987). The psychology of religious belief. London: Academic Press.