Post-Critical Beliefs and Religious Reflection: Religious Openness Hypothesis in Iranian University and Islamic Seminary Students

Abstract

Negative relationships between Post-Critical Beliefs in Iran imply that Muslim perspectives are closed-minded, but positive correlations between Religious Reflection factors point instead toward a Muslim open-mindedness. The hypothesis of this study was that this contrast reveals the Post-Critical Belief of Symbolism to be a questionable index of Muslim open-mindedness. Iranian university students and Islamic seminarians ( N = 296) responded to Post-Critical Beliefs, Religious Reflection, Religious Orientation, Quest, Rumination-Reflection, and Satisfaction with Life measures. The “openness” of Symbolism correlated negatively with the “openness” of Intellect Oriented Reflection. Other relationships broadly documented Muslim potentials for openness. Evidence of open-mindedness also appeared in contrasts between university students and Islamic seminarians. These results argued against Symbolism as a culturally sensitive measure of Muslim open-mindedness and supported the claim of the Religious Openness Hypothesis that traditional religions have at least some potentials for openness that can be obscured by contextual influences.