In Our Own Image: How Americans Rate Jesus on the Ideological Spectrum

IF 1.5 1区哲学 0 RELIGION

Review of Religious Research Pub Date : 2024-03-20 DOI:10.1177/0034673x241239570

Samuel L. Perry, Joshua B. Grubbs, C. Schleifer

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Abstract

How can Americans on the political left and right both claim their views represent those of Jesus? Using nationally-representative data in which Americans rated Jesus on the left-right ideological spectrum, we assess what characteristics are associated with Americans’ ratings and consider arguments about causal ordering. Competing expectations are drawn from “images of God” research and research showing political identities influence Americans’ religious characteristics. Focusing on Christians first, the strongest predictors of where Christians place Jesus was their own ideological identity followed closely by views on Christian nationalism. No other religious, racial, or partisan characteristics were associated with where Christians place Jesus. For insights on causal direction, we interact religiosity measures with ideological identity and Christian nationalism, finding identical patterns regardless of religious commitment. We also run models to see if patterns differ for non-Christians and the influence of ideological identity and Christian nationalism are nearly identical. Given that Americans’ ideological placement of Jesus has little to do with their own religious identity or commitment, findings lend more support for the theory that Christians and non-Christians alike project their own ideological identities and views about Christian nationalism onto Jesus rather than such characteristics following from stable images of Jesus.

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以我们自己的形象：美国人如何评价意识形态光谱上的耶稣

政治上左翼和右翼的美国人怎么能同时声称他们的观点代表了耶稣的观点？利用美国人在左右意识形态光谱上对耶稣进行评价的全国代表性数据，我们评估了美国人的评价与哪些特征相关，并考虑了有关因果排序的论点。我们从 "上帝形象 "研究和显示政治身份影响美国人宗教特征的研究中得出了相互竞争的预期。首先关注基督徒，基督徒将耶稣置于何种位置的最强预测因素是其自身的意识形态认同，紧随其后的是对基督教民族主义的看法。其他宗教、种族或党派特征都与基督徒将耶稣置于何处无关。为了深入了解因果方向，我们将宗教信仰与意识形态认同和基督教民族主义进行了互动，结果发现无论宗教信仰如何，两者的模式都是相同的。我们还建立了模型来观察非基督徒的模式是否有所不同，意识形态认同和基督教民族主义的影响几乎相同。鉴于美国人对耶稣的意识形态定位与他们自身的宗教认同或宗教承诺关系不大，研究结果更加支持这样一种理论，即基督徒和非基督徒都将自己的意识形态认同和对基督教民族主义的看法投射到耶稣身上，而不是从稳定的耶稣形象中产生这些特征。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Review of Religious Research Multiple-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

20.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Review of Religious Research (RRR) publishes empirical social science research on religion, primarily in sociology and social psychology and related fields of psychology, and scholarly literature reviews of research in these fields. RRR provides a forum for research across multiple disciplines and approaches, including research on the following topical areas: Clergy; Church programs; Comparative analyses of religious denominations and institutions; Denominational and congregational growth, decline, and vitality; Denominational and congregational conflict, competition, and cooperation; Ethnicity/race and religion; Generational and personal religious change; New religious movements; Personal spiritual and religious beliefs and practices; Religion and attitudes; Religion and family; Religion and gender, Religion and social behavior; Religion and well-being; and Research methodology. Among the characteristics that distinguish RRR from other academic journals on the study of religion are its applied focus and the opportunities it offers for academics and denomination-based researchers to share their findings with each other. RRR aims to facilitate the sharing and comparing of applied studies between denominational and academic researchers. RRR is the official quarterly journal of the Religious Research Association, Inc. RRR regularly publishes Original Articles, Research Notes, Review Articles, Applied Research Abstracts, and Book Reviews, and occasionally publishes articles on the Context of Religious Research. Applied Research Abstracts: This type of publication (previously called Denominational Research Reports) consists of a 350-550 word summary (without any references) of an applied research study in the form of a structured abstract, with the following section headings: Background, Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusions and Implications, followed by 3-4 keywords. The author may included a footnote that states: (a) whether a complete report exists and how it can be obtained; (b) whether the raw data are available in electronic form and how they can be obtained if the authors wish to make them available to other researchers; and (c) whether the authors would like to collaborate with other researchers to further analyze the data and write a full report for possible journal publication as a peer-reviewed manuscript. Such abstracts should be submitted to the journal editor for consideration for publication. Book Reviews: Unsolicited book reviews are not accepted for publication in RRR. If you would like to review a book for the journal, contact the Book Review Editor, David Eagle, Ph.D. – david.eagle@duke.edu Context of Religious Research: This journal heading covers items about awards and announcements, memoriams, and articles about the research process (e.g., articles on research methods and statistics, and profiles of denominational research organizations), as well as invited addresses to the Religious Research Association. Unsolicited articles should be submitted to the journal editor for consideration for publication. Original Articles: These are scholarly and methodologically sophisticated research studies: see Information for Authors on this website and the Submission Guidelines on the Springer RRR website for details (https://www.springer.com/13644) Reseach Notes: These are scholarly and methodologically sophisticated research studies: see Information for Authors on this website and the Submission Guidelines on the Springer RRR website for details (https://www.springer.com/13644) Review Articles: Authors should send an email to the journal’s editor describing the nature and scope of a proposed literature review to see if it is suitable for publication in RRR. See Information for Authors on this website and the Submission Guidelines on the Springer RRR website for details (https://www.springer.com/13644) The journal’s editor is Kevin J. Flannelly, Ph.D. – kjflannelly@gmail.com