Calvinism, Gender Ideology, and Relational Spirituality: An Empirical Investigation of Worldview Differences

Abstract

Participants were grouped on the basis of theological beliefs about divine-human and female-male dynamics using cluster analysis. We then explored whether these subgroups might differ on (a) hierarchical social expectations, (b) commitments to social justice and intercultural competence, (c) religious exploration, (d) existential defensiveness, (e) views of psychology -theology integration, and (f) perspectives on women's leadership. The sample consisted of graduate students (N = 227) at an Evangelical seminary in the Midwestern United States. Results yielded a four-cluster solution. Individuals scoring high on both Calvinist theological beliefs and complementarian gender role beliefs scored significantly higher on hierarchical relationship expectations and existential defensiveness, and preferred a Christian psychology view of integration and a male headship perspective of leadership, compared to those scoring low on Calvinism and complementarianism. In contrast, individuals scoring low on both theological dimensions scored higher on Arminianism, gender egalitarianism, social justice commitment, intercultural competence commitment, religious exploration, and they preferred an integration view of psychology and theology and a "no restrictions" perspective on women's roles. Findings highlight implications for theological training and spiritual formation.

Shared Death Experiences: A Little-Known Type of End-of-Life Phenomena Reported by Caregivers and Loved Ones

“…19,20 Studies do suggest that women tend to be more inclined toward a relational form of spirituality. 21,22 Additionally, men might be less inclined or willing to publicly admit that they have had these kinds of experiences. In terms of age distribution of individuals reporting SDEs, we captured only the ages of people at the time that they reported their experiences to us, and several individuals shared experiences they had had years ago.…”

The Multidimensional Religious Ideology scale

“…These findings help interpret research by Beck (2004Beck ( , 2006, who has drawn on Terror Management Theory (Greenberg et al, 1990(Greenberg et al, , 1992 to distinguish between "defensive" theological orientations and "existential" orientations. According to Beck, defensive theology is characterized by dogmatic belief, moral outrage, suspicion of out-groups, and negative associations with social justice commitment, while existential theologies are more open to questioning and struggle (Sandage et al, 2017). Parallel to Roof's (1972) findings, Beck has found defensive religiosity to reflect a motivation to avoid other worldviews.…”

Measuring the Spiritual, Character, and Moral Formation of Seminarians: In Search of a Meta-Theory of Spiritual Change

“…Thus far, the RS model has been used in cross-sectional studies to predict individual differences in various virtuous dispositions, such as humility, 40 forgiveness, 41 hope, 42 gratitude, 43 and justice. 44 However, this research could also be extended to longitudinally investigate growth in other virtues and behaviors.…”