Theodicy and Crisis: Explaining Variation in U.S. Believers’ Faith Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

IF 2.4 1区哲学 0 RELIGION

Sociology of Religion Pub Date : 2021-11-10 DOI:10.1093/socrel/srab042

Kraig Beyerlein, David Z. Nirenberg, Geneviéve Zubrzycki

引用次数: 9

Abstract

Based on a national survey of U.S. adults conducted six weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, this article investigates how crisis affects religious faith. Almost no Americans reported losing or a weakening of faith in response to the pandemic at this time. By contrast, nearly one-third of believers indicated that the coronavirus outbreak had strengthened their faith. We theoretically develop and empirically test three religious factors—theodicy, practices, and tradition—to explain variation in the strengthening effect of the COVID-19 pandemic among believers. Results from statistical models show that two theodicic interpretations—believing that God: is using the pandemic as a way to tell humanity to change; and will personally protect you from the virus—significantly increased believers’ reports of faith strengthening, controlling for other factors. We also found that Black Protestants were more likely to report these interpretations, which in turn strengthened their faith in response to the pandemic.

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狄奥尼奇与危机：解释美国信徒对新冠肺炎疫情信仰反应的变化

本文基于新冠肺炎大流行六周后对美国成年人进行的一项全国性调查，调查了危机如何影响宗教信仰。此时，几乎没有美国人报告在应对疫情时失去或信心减弱。相比之下，近三分之一的信徒表示，冠状病毒的爆发加强了他们的信仰。我们从理论上发展并实证检验了三个宗教因素——理论、实践和传统——以解释新冠肺炎疫情在信徒中强化效果的变化。统计模型的结果表明，有两种神学解释——相信上帝：正在利用疫情来告诉人类改变；并将亲自保护你免受病毒感染——显著增加了信徒关于加强信仰、控制其他因素的报告。我们还发现，黑人新教徒更有可能报告这些解释，这反过来加强了他们应对疫情的信心。

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

Sociology of Religion Multiple-

CiteScore

7.50

自引率

6.50%

发文量

期刊介绍： Sociology of Religion, the official journal of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, is published quarterly for the purpose of advancing scholarship in the sociological study of religion. The journal publishes original (not previously published) work of exceptional quality and interest without regard to substantive focus, theoretical orientation, or methodological approach. Although theoretically ambitious, empirically grounded articles are the core of what we publish, we also welcome agenda setting essays, comments on previously published works, critical reflections on the research act, and interventions into substantive areas or theoretical debates intended to push the field ahead. Sociology of Religion has published work by renowned scholars from Nancy Ammerman to Robert Wuthnow. Robert Bellah, Niklas Luhmann, Talcott Parsons, and Pitirim Sorokin all published in the pages of this journal. More recently, articles published in Sociology of Religion have won the ASA Religion Section’s Distinguished Article Award (Rhys Williams in 2000) and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion’s Distinguished Article Award (Matthew Lawson in 2000 and Fred Kniss in 1998). Building on this legacy, Sociology of Religion aspires to be the premier English-language publication for sociological scholarship on religion and an essential source for agenda-setting work in the field.