Bogoslovska smotra, Vol. 70 No. 2, 2000.
Original scientific paper
Belief and Religiosity
Siniša Zrinšćak
; Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Gordan Črpić
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Stjepan Kušar
Abstract
In this study religiosity has been researched within only two dimensions: beliefs (orthodoxy) and religiosity in a narrow sense of the word (emotional relationship towards religion). Belief is measured by the statements on belief in God and in other basic religious truths, while religiosity has been researched on the basis of the series of questions such as: does a personal God exist, how important is God in life, does religion offer comfort and strength, how often do the respondents pray outside religious services and similar questions. The results show a high level of belief in God (89,1% of the respondents), but a lower level of belief in other religious truths.
Belief in all religious truths, excluding belief in telepathy, forms a mutual indicator of belief that has been graphically presented by the method of structural equation modelling. Belief in some alternative concepts is also noticeable, for example belief in telepathy (36,9%) and reincarnation (19,3%). Religiosity is also, in Croatia, on a very high level, even though the respondents are divided into those who believe that a personal God exists (36,8%), or some sort of spirit or life force (48,9%). Around three-quarters of the respondents accept all the other indicators of the emotional relationship towards religion. The statements on belief and religiosity have been analysed according to a series of socio-demographic variables and compared with the data from similar researches in other European states, in the last ten years. This comparison enabled the understanding of a specific quality of Croatian experience in which, religion and the Church play an important social role. Therefore, the problem of the understanding of questions was specially analysed, where the attention was directed towards the way in which the respondents understand what question and what motives stipulate a specific answer. This not only emphasises the social context, but also the inherent ability of religion in the articulation of the needs of an individual and the whole community. Finally, it appears, that the differentiation of the dimensions of belief and religiosity can help towards the understanding of consequential junctions of religion and how, on the basis of it, some dilemmas of future religious changes in Croatia can be formulated.
Keywords
belief; religiosity; Croatia; the understanding of questions; the measurement of religiosity; comparative researches
Hrčak ID:
31161
URI
Publication date:
15.11.2000.
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