Working within the sensing, intuition, feeling, thinking (SIFT) approach to biblical hermeneutics, the present study invited a hermeneutical community of 23 type-aware participants to explore the account of the Death of Lazarus as reported in John 11: 1–17 within type-alike groups differentiated according to the participants’ dominant function-orientation. Five groups were constituted differentiating: introverted sensing, introverted intuition, extraverted intuition, introverted and extraverted feeling and introverted and extraverted thinking. These five groups generated distinctive readings of the narrative that were characteristic of (...) the individual type preference. Contribution: The SIFT method, situated within the reader perspective approach to biblical hermeneutics, is concerned with attending to the influence exerted by the psychological type profile of the reader on interpreting the text. The present study goes beyond previous work by comparing the responses of five hermeneutical communities (each distinguished by a different dominant function-orientation) to the same passage of scripture. (shrink)

Attitudes toward mission agencies in general, and toward the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in particular, were assessed using two 10-item scales completed by 833 recently ordained Anglican clergy from the UK. Clergy were generally positive toward mission agencies and willing for their churches to engage with them, but more reluctant to form personal links. Most clergy felt agencies should give priority to the relief of poverty and to development needs, rather than to spreading specifically Christian beliefs. (...) Results for the USPG indicated more uncertain responses than for mission agencies generally, which probably indicated a lower visibility for this agency among some clergy, especially evangelicals. (shrink)

The twenty-third volume of RSSSR includes a landmark collection of papers on Theism and Non-Theism in Psychological Science, as well as papers on other key areas in the study of religion such as spirituality and social capital.

The 25th volume of Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion continues to provide readers with an interdisciplinary assortment of high quality research studies aimed at capturing salient, contemporary trends in the field. The current volume presents a special section examining the role of spiritual and religious themes in sexuality research.

Perceived levels of belonging and frequency of disagreeing with local teaching were assessed in a sample of 404 lay members of the Anglican Church in England. Belonging and disagreeing were inversely related, although occasional disagreement was common even among those who felt entirely at home in their church. The power of individual differences and external factors to predict sense of belonging and frequency of disagreeing was tested using multivariate binary logistic regression analysis. Sense of belonging was strongest among people who, (...) in terms of psychological type, recorded high feeling and high judging scores, who were older, who attended church frequently, and who had low frequency of charismatic practice. Disagreement was most frequent among people who, in terms of psychological type, recorded high intuitive scores, who had experienced higher levels of education and who were in larger congregations. Belonging and disagreeing seemed to be related more to intrinsic and acquired individual differences than to external factors associated with congregations. (shrink)