Implicit Religion: Journal of CSIRCS

A peer-reviewed Journal, that brings together

the study of society and of religion
the theoretical and the applied
the intelligent and the interesting

Abstracts of Vol IX, no. 3, November 2006

Professor of Mental Health Nursing, Staffordshire University and South Staffs Healthcare NHS Trust

In his book, The Greatest Benefit to Mankind, Porter states that according to all the standard benchmarks, the western nations of the world have never been more healthy, and yet their citizens have never been more anxious about their health. Freedom from the fear of not being able to pay for treatment if we become ill, or of not being able to find treatment for ourselves and our family, is a privilege not shared by the majority of people in the world. This raises the question of whether so many people, including health professionals, continue to worry about their health because they are out of touch with their own bodies, unsure how to recognise states of well being and of dis-ease, and ignorant of what steps to take to maintain or rectify the balance in their lives. Bertrand Russell lamented how little progress had been made in understanding the human spirit, in improving human relationships, and in self-knowledge, even though what had been achieved in the fields of science and technology in the course of a lifetime was truly astounding. He advised that the spiritual journey is best undertaken by ‘being with people who help your being’. The ethos and structure of today’s health services make it difficult for staff to stand alongside those they are caring for, to support their ‘being’; rather they are focused on government targets and outcomes, which often have little to do with helping individuals take responsibility for attaining and maintaining an optimum state of health. The same lack of focus is found in other of our human services.

This paper explores data included in the 2001 Scottish Social Attitudes Survey (National Centre for Social Research, 2001) and sets it within a discussion of spirituality in Scotland. A scale of spirituality is constructed encompassing a person’s self-classification, awareness of other possible realms of reality and engagement in a small range of practices. Associations with age and gender are explored. Within the broad field of personal and political identity further associations are identified and discussed which shed some light, tentatively, upon the profile of Scotland’s political party supporters and intentions to vote in general. Lack of association with some key economic and social indicators is noted. Pointers are offered for qualitative research that might build on the findings of this survey with respect to the relationship between spirituality and citizenship in the contemporary context.

A sample of 65 men and 93 women attending eight Anglican churches in Wales completed a questionnaire concerned with beliefs, attitudes and practices. Alongside conventional Christian belief, unconventional belief was assessed by eight items relating to good luck and eight items relating to bad luck. Alongside conventional Christian behaviour, unconventional behaviour was assessed by eight items relating to protection from bad luck or promotion of good luck. The data demonstrate how many churchgoers combine their conventional Christian beliefs about God with unconventional beliefs about good and bad luck. It is perhaps this special blend of conventional Christian beliefs and practices with unconventional beliefs and practices that helps to define the implicit religion of Anglicans in Britain today.

Abstracts of Vol IX, no. 2, July 2006

This article applies the concept of implicit religion to law in order to give a new understanding of English law: its sacredness and its theology; its organisational structures and its social forms. Having constructed a table of potential elements, illustrating the concept of implicit religion, read against both Christianity and Law, three entries on that table are explored in further detail. Ultimately the article argues that not only is English law an implicit religion templated by Christianity, but that it contains within itself a sacred paradox, formed by the interaction of its implicit and explicit religious dimensions.

Implicit Religious Assumptions within the Resurgence of Civil Religion in the USA since 9/11 (P 166)

Any number of societal reactions to the attacks of 11 September 2001 could be conceived as theoretical possibilities within the United States. In this article I want to make the argument that what a number of writers, but most notably Robert Bellah, have identified as civil religion in America provided the principal cultural resource that served to reintegrate and unite Americans in a coherent national response to the crisis. This is true because civil religion already existed as a cultural substratum and because it was, in fact, aspects of this very substratum that were under attack in the particular dynamics of these events. The thesis I propose is not a restudy of the civil religion concept qua concept. A variety of such studies have appeared from the 1970s to the 1990s and can be easily consulted by those interested in issues of conceptual development, refinement, elaboration, critique, and so on. I want to take the concept as broadly defined by Bellah, and empirically specified by Ronald Wimberley and colleagues in a series of subsequent investigations, and apply it to understanding the nature, function, and possible outcomes of the American response.

Believe in the Net: the Construction of the Sacred in Utopian Tales of the Internet (P 180)

In the course of the 1990s the Internet gave rise to highly optimistic scenarios regarding its significance for humanity. In the media, in the business-guru circuit and in politics, a euphoric discourse emerged that strongly adhered to the belief that the Internet and related business methods would change the world radically and be the long-awaited vessels of earthly salvation. This paper attempts to account for such belief. It suggests that the trust invested in the extraordinary qualities of the Internet was largely based on the special meaning granted to it, which can be described as sacred. This article looks at the sources of this contemporary manifestation of the sacred and considers how the Internet became a belief with religious traits. An historical comparison between the Internet craze and the fascination with the telegraph in the nineteenth century will serve to demonstrate that there exists a longer tradition of associating new technologies with the sacred and the transcendent.

This article provides a foundational definition of implicit religion, using the characteristics identified by the research of Edward Bailey, and examines the applicability of this construct as a research tool in the analysis of religious behaviour. Types of implicit religion and their relationship to concepts such as civil religion, folk religion, invisible religion and wild religion are discussed, demonstrating that the boundaries of religion are not objectively defined. The paper concludes by recommending the construct of implicit religion as a tool to gain a new perspective on the study of religious behaviour.

A Citation Analysis of Research in Implicit Religion Published Outside the Journal Implicit Religion:For Whom the Citations Toll (P 220)

Lewis (2005) provided a bibliometric analysis of the term ‘implicit religion’ within a selection of popular databases, and found that only a modest amount of articles actually cited the term (n = 77). He concluded the term ‘implicit religion’ has not yet gained widespread attention. Tangentially, Lewis questioned if the literature on ‘implicit religion’ was dominated by a small number of highly influential, and hence widely cited, articles. To test this, the present study empirically examined the frequency with which each of these 77 publications that cited the term ‘implicit religion’ had been subsequently cited. Each of these publications was entered into the Web of Science Citation Index database.

In total, the 77 publications had been collectively cited 98 times, and the frequency of citations ranged from 0 to 27, with a mean citation count of 1.28. Of the 77 publications entered into the database, only 19 publications were cited. The five most highly cited publications were: Davie (1990; 27 citations), Bailey (1983; 17 citations), Bailey (1990c; 9 citations) and Allcock (1988; 8 citations). These data suggest that the implicit religion literature is dominated by a small number of publications that are published by a small number of authors. However, these publications are not widely cited themselves. Limitations of the present study are discussed.

Abstracts of Vol IX, no. 1, April 2006

This ethnography explores the ways in which hip hop culture functions as a secular form of religiosity for adolescent males in the United States. The data is based on the author’s experience as an instructor at a private high school where she observed the behaviour here described. ‘The Fifth Corner’—a site created by eight teenage boys for enacting hip hop principles—displayed elements of religious life that historians of religion conventionally ascribe to religious behaviour. It was a designated sacred space carved out of a secular realm that provided what the secular environment did not: the opportunity for a community of believers to congregate, to compose scripture, and to generate symbolic and ritual activity that elicited a spiritual feeling which promoted an ethical posture and led to the development of a doctrine of faith.

Viewing Advertising through the Lens of Faith: Finding God in Images of Mammon (P 29)

Various scholars have noted connections between traditional Protestantism and advertising in the United States. Not only did the two institutions inform one another as modern advertising emerged and matured, but, arguably, the two systems also exhibit parallel rhetorical formats and functions today. In this qualitative study, it is suggested that a shift in emphasis, from advertising’s relationship to explicit religion to its interaction with implicit religiosity, could provide fresh insights. This framework was explored through focus group interviews, participant journal entries, and one-on-one, in-depth interviews with Protestants from three mainline congregations. The findings show that some of the participants can, on occasion, touch the spiritual realm through transactions with advertising. Indeed, it is contended that, although they belong to formal religious organizations, these respondents can also engage in practices associated with implicit religion. At the same time, the interviewees also indicated they have little awareness of how advertising perpetuates the economic status quo. Displaying hegemony at work, they are seemingly able to pursue both explicit and implicit religious experiences and support their market-driven culture without bearing significant cognitive dissonance. The paper makes the case that advertising can sometimes function as a vehicle for helping to reconcile this apparent conflict.

This is an essay about believing rather than beliefs. I use the term ‘anonymous’ to analyse Karl Rahner’s concept of ‘anonymous Christianity’, and to underline the universality of believing. Rahner’s ‘anonymous Christianity’ seeks to render universal a traditional exclusive Christian message of salvation. However, in insisting that Christ remains the pivot of this message, Rahner subverts the promise of his concept. I use the term ‘anonymous believing’ to emphasize that believing is a universal human instinct to create meaning, from within an existence whose contingency inevitably lies beyond explanation. Believing has a natural primacy over knowing. Critical believing is the attempt to create meaning amidst the complexities of our subjectivity, and the cultural contexts of our lives and of the physical world, knowledge of which is constantly growing. My contention is that the primacy of believing is undermined by the primacy accorded to the knowledge-based assertions that are currently characteristic of religious creeds and moral injunctions. Anonymous critical believing eschews creeds, but embraces the values of justice, compassion and well-being, which religions also espouse. There are close links between ‘implicit religion’ and‘critical believing’. However, I believe the two are categorically different: implicit religion is predominantly descriptive and substantival, while critical believing is process orientated.

Believing and Implicit Religion beyond the Churches: Religion, Superstition, Luck and Fear among 13-15 Year-old Girls in Wales (P 74)

A sample of 1,133 year-nine and year-ten pupils (13-15 year-olds), attending six state-maintained secondary schools in South Wales, completed a survey concerned with beliefs in the afterlife, beliefs in supernatural forces, beliefs about good luck, beliefs about bad luck, beliefs about protection from harm, and fear of the supernatural. The analysis distinguishes between the belief patterns of females who belong to and attend a Christian group (the churched) and females who neither belong to nor attend any religious group (the unchurched). The data demonstrate significantly greater belief in (but no significantly greater fear of) some aspects of the supernatural among the unchurched.

Expanding on the concept of implicit religion, when explicit religion is becoming ever more marginal, this article explores rather than investigates an intuition of two campus chaplains. It is their first attempt to reveal in a non-proclaiming way the spirituality of many members of their generation. It tells the experience of young people who discover they have a thing like a self or even a soul. It tells the pastoral experience of these chaplains who have to redefine their job after this discovery. Often this discovery is a shocking experience to all concerned. Currently, methods are lacking to describe it in an appropriate way. This article can also be considered a first attempt to look for an acceptable method of description: a search for a common language.

Abstracts of Vol VIII, no. 3, November 2005

Orpheus and the Underground: Raves and Implicit Religion – From Interpretation to Critique (P 217)

This three-part article highlights a personal liaison with the concept of implicit religion as both cultural analyst and religion theorist. The lack of unity and methodological rigour which characterize the reception of the concept of implicit religion to date fuels the desire to apply it in a systematic fashion to a contemporary youth culture phenomenon which satisfies the orphic metaphor of initiation, night-time and music, and has been widely interpreted as harbouring some sort of religiosity or rapport with the sacred: the English-born-turned-global phenomenon of techno-music-fuelled raves. The first section presents general information on raves, methodological considerations and an ‘ethnographic’ account stemming from field research conducted with a small group of Montreal ravers in 2002. The second section is interpretative, starting with a synthesis of existing interpretations according to which raves are driven by various religious ‘anthropo-logics’. The three definitional vectors of implicit religion are then systematically applied to the material presented in section one, while drawing parallels with Bailey’s (1997) presentation. The third and last part uses the prior analysis as a basis from which to critique the concept of implicit religion. It tries to show how the definition of implicit religion has shortcomings with regards to the orphic – or, more precisely, the transgressive – pole of religion, paramount in the study of raves. It also argues that the concept of implicit religion is tributary of a typically ‘modern’ inflexion permeating sociological theories on religion; an inflexion which has oriented research to date in this field and which has led to confusion as to the status of implicit religion as religion or ‘something like it’. The article closes with a few hints as to which theoretical avenues the author thinks could overcome the conceptual difficulties outlined.

‘O Come, All Ye Faithful ...’: Contemporary Sexuality, Transcendence and Implicit Religion (P 266)

Centuries of Judeo-Christianity have accustomed us to a quite radical dissociation between sex and spirituality. The history of humanity is however permeated with cultures which envisaged the body and its passions as a privileged road towards transcendence, as a vital quest for meaning and as a genuine religious experience. Through the study of four of its contemporary figures (the rave phenomenon, the fetish scene, roaming sexuality, and risky sexual behaviour), this paper suggests that this could still be a valid way to assess many aspects of sexuality in our times.

Throughout history, virtually every major religion has prized dreams as a primary means of divine revelation. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, many in the fields of psychotherapy and pastoral counseling have recognized that dreams can help their clients develop the religious and spiritual dimensions of their lives. This article argues that the concept of implicit religion can encourage dreamers to appreciate spiritual wisdom they might otherwise overlook in the secular and nonreligious imagery of their dreams.

Abstracts of Vol VIII, no. 2, July 2005

The Pursuit of Happiness: Evolutionary Origins, Psychological Research, and Implications for Implicit Religion (P 118)

Scientific studies of happiness (as subjective well-being) provide a lot of information about it: thus, a person’s level of happiness usually stays within a certain genetically determined range despite life’s ups and downs, happiness relates to activity in specific parts of the brain and to the presence or absence of serotonin and dopamine, and we have evolved to pursue happiness. Raising happiness within the set range can involve high self-esteem, a sense of control over life, and an outgoing, optimistic personality. In addition, the person’s view of the world influences his or her level of happiness. Flow, personal relationships, and having values and goals can also contribute. Pursuing happiness and seeking to remove unhappiness appear to be primary human motivations, biologically based. The study of implicit religion, therefore, ought at least to look at happiness and ask about the relationship between it and implicit religion.

Assistant Director of Research, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Cambridge

In this paper, I am concerned with various narrative accounts, told by sociologists, of who we are and how we got to be that way. I share an interest in the nature of the modern person with a number of the papers at this conference; my particular approach is to view the problem through the history of sociology.

The theme I would like to develop concerns the basis and background of religious beliefs and attitudes, both as they are essential to the formation of explicit religions and as they relate to the occurrence of various kinds of implicit religion. From a theoretical point of view I am interested in the perspectives which are available to the study of religion, and which must be used if we intend to come to an adequate understanding of religious issues.

Over a period of several months, twenty-five actors were invited to answer the question ‘What is acting really about?’ Eighteen out of the twenty-five replied. Their response provides evidence for the claim that theatre is itself an inherently spiritual medium (as well as a vehicle for explicitly religious plays), and that the relationship of professional actors to their craft may be considered to be implicitly religious.

This paper examines the gap between the relatively high percentage who professed to be Christian in the 2001 U.K. Population Census and the much smaller percentage who attend church, and the causes for this disparity, by examining the possible reasons for those ticking ‘Christian’ and other statistics from a wide variety of sources which may be taken to affirm the Census figure. The implications of such a large difference are also considered by reference to the religious structure of the population.

Abstracts of Vol VIII, no. 1, April 2005

The Internal Morality of Medicine in the Contexts of Implicit Religion and Spirituality (P 7)

The internal morality of medicine is the moral framework that entails the duties and virtues of physicians in their curing, healing and caring for the sick. It is claimed in this essay that when medicine is practiced as a secular vocation, as opposed to that of a business or a job, it meets the criteria of implicit religion and spirituality. Specifically, it is argued that spirituality is evident, relevant and important as an ingredient of the internal morality of medicine when the latter is practiced as a vocation. Spirituality may manifest in the committed professional activities and attitudes of physicians on behalf of the health of patients and of the larger community, and particularly in the process of discerning what is the best interest of patients in the context of a holistic healing approach to their clinical condition. It may also lessen the likelihood of erroneous overvaluation of patients’ self-determination, as if it were equivalent to dignity, while facilitating the consideration of patients’ communal connectedness. Therefore spirituality in medicine may enhance the quality of health care, and thereby benefit both the patients and those who affect, and who are affected by, their lives, health, dying and death.

The concept of spirituality and its centrality within nursing’s philosophy of caring has been widely debated for the past three decades. Attempts have been made not only to define spirituality but also to examine the potential benefits that spiritual care may have for patients, such as the provision of hope in times of illness. Although UK nursing bodies have identified spiritual care as an area of nursing competency, there has been increasing concern recently about the discrepancy between the teaching of spiritual care and the delivery of it in practice. It is currently unclear whether spirituality is being taught in the classroom. Debates have centred on how a complex concept such as spirituality can be effectively incorporated within the curricula and what types of teaching methods should best be used, and how assessments are conducted in this area to demonstrate competency. This paper reports on the findings of a pilot study conducted in a university school of health studies. The aim of the study was to gain insight into nursing lecturers’ views on the meaning of spirituality and the methods of teaching and assessing it, within the undergraduate and postgraduate nursing programmes in the school. The findings revealed that nurse lecturers’ views on spirituality were diverse; there was a lack of formal preparation of lecturers to teach spiritual care; lecturers who attempted to incorporate spirituality into their teaching appeared to do so through a process of trial and error; and it was unclear how or whether spirituality was taught to students on a consistent basis either in the classroom or in clinical areas.

Thinking Outside the Box: Religion and Spirituality in Social Work Education and Practice (P 40)

Social work education in the UK has been generally mistrustful and suspicious as far as religion and spirituality are concerned, and at times actively hostile. This has partly been the result of social work needing to find its feet and its place as a respectable academic discipline in its own right. In achieving this goal, it took on board some of the scepticism about religion and spirituality found in some aspects of the great disciplines of sociology and psychology. Contemporary social work is now required by law to take such issues into account, and the commitment to celebrating diversity and anti-discriminatory practice makes these become live issues once more. The emphasis upon a ‘strengths perspective’ and ‘understanding resilience’ in people’s lives, offers further insights into the link with spirituality and implicit religion, which encourages social work to recognise the positive impact it can have on people’s lives.

This religion can be explored in terms of Experiences, Beliefs, and Practices. ‘Experiences’ includes passing through crisis; meeting the dead, and extra-sensory perception; and relational consciousness. ‘Beliefs’ explore the roles of induction and intuition; the continuing quest; and life after death. ‘Practices’ are articulated as the golden rule; the common round; and prayer. This paper defines religion, expounds the work of some researchers, suggests how a church might adopt the role of chaplain to this religion, and hints at a theology that might under-gird such work. It suggests that pluriformity within the church’s own Trinitarian tradition enables it to operate within whichever model is most appropriate for the people with whom it is dealing.

Implicit Religion in the Psychology of Religion: What the (Psychology) Papers Say (P 64)

To gauge the use of the term ‘implicit religion’ within the psychology of religion, the present study examined the prevalence of the term within published articles covered by the main bibliographic database in psychology, PsycINFO. For purposes of comparison, the prevalence of the term ‘implicit religion’ was also examined within leading social science, religion and sociology bibliographic databases. The number of citations of ‘implicit religion’ demonstrated that the term is currently almost non-existent in usage within psychology journals abstracted by PsycINFO (n=1), or among social science journals abstracted by ASSIA: Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (n=7). However, it is more widely used in religion journals abstracted by ATLAReligion (n=22), and sociology journals abstracted by Sociological Abstracts (n=59). These findings provide further empirical evidence to support the conclusion drawn by Gollnick (2002) that the term ‘implicit religion’ has not gained the widespread attention of psychologists of religion.

Abstracts of Vol VII, no. 2, August 2004

Denton Hall in Yorkshire, UK, has been the seat of academic weekends devoted to research on implicit religion since the late 1970’s, more or less the lifetime of some of us younger participants in the latest conference. Judging from the very full schedule of the weekend that took place from 7�9 May this year, in those years study in the field has anything but exhausted itself. This year’s conference offered a broad range of topics and disciplines, and the cases presented promise to open up more and more interesting new domains. It would appear that the implicit religion approach lends itself to most facets of our society�from explicit religion to healthcare; from the business world to youth culture. What seems to tie the different uses of the concept together is not so much a unanimous understanding of what implicit religion is or should be. Rather, it is a shared interest in religiosity as something not necessarily institutionalised but nonetheless very much present in the modern world. However, if implicit religion can be described as a �common cause’, then what are its goals and what is the agenda of those studying it today?

It is gradually becoming clear that what is happening to religion today is �disembedding’ rather than �secularization’. In this article four categories of disembedded religion are developed. These are described in the order of their distance from official religion: alternative religion; subdogmatic religion; optional religion; and implicit religion. I refer to these � unofficial’ forms of religion as �wild religion’.

Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, St. Paul's College, University of Waterloo, Ontario

This article examines psychotherapy’s changing attitude toward religion and spirituality, a change that signals a greater openness not only to explicit religion and spirituality, but also to the key elements of implicit religion. Recent studies indicate that the primary psychological elements of implicit religion are identity, values, worldview, and meaning. To the degree that psychotherapy helps people rewrite their personal story and redraw their cognitive and moral maps of reality, it deals directly with these core aspects of their implicit religion and spirituality. This essay explores how these dimensions of implicit religion are essential factors, dealt with in the course of psychotherapy.

The problem of paradox, which is important in Scripture and in modern life, may be taken seriously or dismissed with humour. Humour may subvert faith in a secularized society when it is used to interpret paradox. Fun, used as a euphemism, is that form of humour which trivializes paradox with its interpretation. As a world-view, fun functions as a religion when it brings order into a world of disorder, and consistency to that which is inconsistent. The result is a culture of fun which may distort our perception of the created world and our place in it.

An examination of the current literature in urban regeneration reveals a growing amount of policy-related research about the potential and actual contribution of faith communities and religious organisations to social welfare, community cohesion and economic and community development. However, there appears to be little or no analysis of the values and theologies that underlie the action in different faith traditions. This article, based on recent research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, tries to address this gap.

Abstracts of Vol VII, no. 1, April 2004

Love is not merely the highest goal of the world religions but also is an implicit religion in its own right. This is demonstrated through an examination of the theme of love in a range secular literature, poetry, prose and commentary from ancient and modern sources. Often at odds with overt religious mores, love seems an ameliorating and transforming human experience.

Implicit Religion as Commitment Process: insights from Brickman and Bailey (p 20)

The concept of implicit religion is closely associated with the idea of commitment, so it would seem useful for students of implicit religion to examine what is known about personal commitment from social psychological studies. This paper does so by focusing on what is arguably the major social psychological theory of commitment, Philip Brickman’s Commitment, Conflict, and Caring (1987), which derives fundamental processes and patterns describing the development, maintenance, and dissolution of commitments from cognitive dissonance theory. The paper concludes that the Brickman theory offers important supplemental insight into the formative processes of everyday transcendence or implicit religion. At the same time Edward Bailey’s empirical findings in implicit religion challenge and illuminate Brickman’s theory with respect to Bailey’s central discovery of a deep commitment to humanity, including a commitment to the self, within contemporary implicit religion. The author also notes several practical and ethical implications of his analysis.

Belonging Without Believing: a study in the social significance of Anglican identity and implicit religion among 13-15 year old males (p 37)

Data from a survey of nearly 34,000 13-15 year olds were analysed to examine the social significance of self-identified religious affiliation (belonging) unaccompanied by faith in God (believing). The data support the social significance of �believing without belonging’. This significance is discussed in light of the concept of implicit religion.

Christian Musical Worship and �Hostility to the Body’: the medieval influence versus the Pentecostal revolution (p 59)

Herbert Spencer (1896) discussed how the prominent social role of music embodies a ‘twinlike’ relationship with dance. This relationship is implicit between the type of dance and music - and obviously the occasion - whether it be a South American samba, an African kantata or a European waltz. The characteristically slow, sober and sombre style of orthodox or mainstream church music and its apparent disunion with dance would appear to derive from the medieval influence of Augustine, who used the inarticulate nature of dance as a justification for this division. Weber, a social observer of Eurocentric background, recognised the problem and propounded the theory of �bodiless music’, but, contrary to popular belief, this did not stem from a conservative Eurocentric bias. This paper explains that Pentecostalism, in contrast to the medieval phenomenon of �bodiless music’, broadly features a lively, exuberant and multi-instrumental musicality in worship which reflects global developments, and is also biblical. The Pentecostal exuberant musicality has become an incentive for mostly younger populations, and vibrant music has become a popular marketable product in the competition for customers within the unregulated religious economy.

The article sets out from the idea that it might be interesting and helpful to look at emerging international judicial institutions in terms of implicit religion, which exemplify the human search for transcendent justice. This possibility is explored in relation to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The problems attending such institutions are reviewed, suggesting that they must inevitably fail to meet our expectations for �infinite justice’. Addressing aspects of justice such as restitution, reconciliation and forgiveness, other mechanisms are being developed which have a more explicitly religious character. The article concludes with a critical examination of general approaches to implicit religion in terms of its functional equivalence to conventionally defined religion.

Abstracts of Vol VI, nos. 2 & 3, November 2003

The major psychological theorists of the last half-century believe that there is little or no religion in childhood. Most psychologists of religion maintain that children's religious and spiritual life is severely limited by their level of cognitive and emotional development. However, this common view does not take into account the growing body of literature on childhood spiritual experiences. This article uses the concept of implicit religion to call attention to the often-overlooked but significant presence of childhood religion. In particular, the psychological structures of implicit religion (identity, values, worldview and meaning) are used to locate where religion can be found in childhood.

A Framework for the Study of Implicit Religion: the Psychological Theory of Implicit Religiosity (p 86)

A basic, inter-disciplinarily developed theory of implicit religiosity is introduced. Three structures common to all explicit religions are identified: they are myth, ritual, and experience of transcendence. Independent of a content, they can be viewed as patterns of thinking (myth), acting (rituals) and feeling (experiences of transcendence) underlying all kinds of — implicitly or explicitly — religious conduct. Only when associated with personally meaningful contents do these structures become representatives of implicit religiosity: they turn into ‘personal myth’, ‘personal rituals’ and subjectively accessible transcendent experiences. A qualitative empirical study of contents of implicit religiosity and related ultimate meanings is described. Results are displayed to demonstrate the functional equivalence of implicit and explicit religiosity. An inventory of ultimate meanings as well as a list of contents frequently associated with implicit religion are documented. Finally, the theory of implicit religiosity is used as a framework for the comparison of applications of implicit religion. A synopsis of applications, subdivided into myth, ritual, and transcendent experience, helps to integrate existing research in the field, to determine the scope of the applications, and to display the religious state of contemporary societies.

In this paper we examine the case of Max Weber as a cult figure within academic life, a phenomenon that falls under the broad category of implicit religion. It is about a hidden ‘religiosity’ that develops around certain mythical figures in the scholarly world, who are venerated in various ways and serve as luminous examples worthy of imitation for subsequent generations of scholars. Attention is also paid to the opposite perspective, namely to the anti-cult trend aimed at demystifying the myth surrounding Weber. The examination of the Weber cult, which may serve as a basis for locating other analogous phenomena, shows that attitudes within the allegedly strictly rationalistic academic community are not altogether devoid of other non-scholarly, implicitly religious orientations.

An Investigation into the Impact of Religion on Health among Iranian Community Residents in the UK (p 133)

The primary aim of this study is to explore the interrelationships between health, health beliefs and religious beliefs within the Iranian community resident in the UK. The theoretical framework used for this study draws on the work of the existentialists who describe human existence in terms of four dimensions — the physical world, the social world, the public world and the spiritual world. A purposive convenience sample was selected, by nominated and network qualitative sampling techniques, representing the main Iranian religious groups. A qualitative, phenomenological approach to data collection was employed, semi-structured focus group interviews being conducted with four groups, each representing one of the main religious groups within the Iranian community. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed, and content analysis was carried out utilising Huberman's systematic approach as a framework. Five major themes emerged from the analysis of the focus group interviews. First was the process by which a system of values was constructed. Second was the issue of the continuum of cultural integration/isolation. Third was the level at which social cohesion or division was experienced. Fourth was the concept of spirituality as a coping strategy and fifth was the ebb and flow of religious influence over the lifespan. Consideration was given to these themes, and the ways in which they interrelated and overlapped. This led to the conclusion that cultural and religious identity were experienced and perceived differently, but recognised to be interrelated. Spirituality appeared to be more strongly related to health, in its broadest sense, than did religiosity, and well-being and health were viewed as being inextricably linked. The relevance of this study to health care practice is evident. Consideration of the spiritual dimenszon of care must extend beyond attention to religious practices, and the potential exists for the coping strategies related to spirituality to be developed as an aid to therapeutic intervention.

Two important developments in the world of religion and spirituality have occurred over the last couple of decades. Even as mainline church attendance has been declining, there has been a growing preoccupation with spirituality. During this same period there has been increasing interest in implicit religion, a concept which has been applied to illuminate a variety of social phenomena. Are these two developments merely a coincidence, or is there a link between them? A number of authors presuppose a close connection between implicit religion and spirituality, without specifying how these two concepts are related. This article will explore, from a psychological perspective, the relationship between implicit religion and spirituality to determine if they are in fact identical.

Professor of Practical Theology, University of Wales, Bangor & Research Associate, Centre for Ministy Studies, University of Wales, Bangor

One small rural parish invited all resident parishioners to complete a survey regarding their perceptions of their parish church. Responses were received from sixty-seven individuals who did not see themselves as regular churchgoers but nonetheless believed in the Christian God. The data demonstrated that those most likely to increase their level of attendance were the established residents (not newcomers) who had maintained contact with the church through attendance at the major festivals. To increase their level of attendance they would want to be made to feel more welcome and more at home.

Abstracts of Vol VI, no. 1, August 2003

This article is an attempt to assess the meaning of being critical in a cultural, scientific, and religious sense. By focusing on implicit religion, the paper discusses various areas in which its critical potential becomes obvious. These areas reach from situations in which developments in implicit religion account for considerable modifications of explicit religion and the cultural environment, to the many instances in which the concept of implicit religion has a critical impact on the perception of reality. The main concern of the paper is the critical potential of the concept of implicit religion as a searching device which permits us to see, and thus to come to a more accurate evaluation of what is going on, in the study of religion, in religious developments, in different forms of religious interaction, and with regard to various attitudes which at first sight do not appear to be religiously relevant.

To say that certain expressions of religion are �implicit’ is to suggest that there are good reasons why they cannot be made �explicit’. This paper accepts that religions are socially constructed systems of symbols (Geertz), but emphasises that they are also responses to the experience of a relationship with a transcendent presence. Qualitative and quantitative empirical data are presented to demonstrate that such experience is extremely commonplace in Britain. Yet public reference to this biologically built-in awareness is often the cause of embarrassment and fear of ridicule. The origins of this taboo are traced back to the damage done to relational consciousness by the possessive individualism that emerged in Europe during the seventeenth century. The rise of individualism is associated with inter-linked changes in religious, philosophical, political and economic beliefs that continue to dominate Western economic and political life. During the nineteenth century the young Hegelian Max Stirner demonstrated (and applauded) how the assumptions of individualism lead logically to an extreme form of atheism. However, since individualism is a social construct, it can potentially be deconstructed. Hence, in principle, religion need not continue to be as implicit as it currently is in many people’s lives.

Human rights are a key part of the contemporary debate on creating an integrated global community. The relationship between religious traditions and the discourse of human rights has yet to be fully explored. This article argues that the structure of this discourse displays elements that suggest it should be viewed as a form of secular religion. It utilizes research carried out by the author on a reconfigured relationship between faith and reason, building upon interpretations of the work of Habermas and Derrida from within the fields of sociology and philosophy respectively. In particular, the text offers the ideas of the �messianic’, of a continuing tension between the universal and the particular, of an understanding of the human subject that balances the cognitive with the affective, and of the hope for a democracy to come that takes into account indeterminacy, as structures to be found both within a renewed relationship between reason and faith and in the discourse of human rights. On this basis there can be seen to be a direct link between human rights and the Christian tradition and therefore the hope that the latter will be able to make a more substantive contribution to the contemporary debate. Becoming a more integral part of the public sphere may be a way forward for religious traditions as they search for more effective ways of engaging with contemporary culture.

Believing and Belonging: a Psychological Comment on the Paper given by E.I. Bailey at Windsor, 1990 (pp 55-59)

Personal Construct Psychology is used to harmonise two apparently conflicting diagnoses of contemporary Church membership in Britain – Davie’s (1994) ‘Believing without Belonging’, and Bailey’s (1990) ‘Belonging without Believing’. Varying degrees of explicitness suggest other combinations of belief and church attendance.

Abstracts of Vol V, no. 2, November 2002

The purpose of this review is to identify those aspects of the psychology of religion that might contribute to the study of implicit religion, and describe some recent research that seems particularly relevant.

The concept of implicit rcligion has gained increasing currency in recent years, its primary application in North American social science being in the sociology of religion.
This paper explores the use of implicit religion in an area where it has received little attention to date, namely the psychology of religion. To gauge the application of implicit religion in the psychology of religion I consult those five major English-language texts in the psychology of religion which have gone to a second edition since 1993. This review of texts guides my discussion of where implicit religion is found in the history and practice of the discipline.

We are continuously immersed in stories about technology. Many of these stories are implicitly religious – they are myths. Through two case studies, the visions of Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy, we analyze some of the myths that underlie our discourse about technology and the contradictions that it creates for technology practice. In that they both reveal and conceal meaning, myths are inherently ambiguous. The bad faith of myth is mystification. It is an illusion that we can ever escape from mythology, but it makes a difference which stories we tell and we have to take ethical responsibility for our narratives.

Establishment or Disestablishment?: a survey among Church of England clergy (pp 105-120)

A sample of 256 clergy with licences or permission to officiate within one Church of England diocese completed a detailed questionnaire concerning their views on establishment and disestablishment. The data demonstrate that, although the majority of clergy are not wishing to campaign for disestablishment, they are seeking some urgent revisions in the current relationship between the church and state.

The basis of my findings are 2,674 prayers in seven German prayer intention books.
Prayer intention books are books laid out in churches in which people can write their intentions. These books are situated in a context of explicit religion. But there are a few aspects that point towards implicit religion, e.g. the anonymity of addressees.

Implicit Religion:

Journal of the Centre for the Study of Implicit Religion and Contemporary Spirituality (CSIRCS)