God Trends
The Growth of Christianity in China May Have Come to an End
Conrad Hackett & Yunping Tong
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, January 2025
Abstract:
Christianity in China grew rapidly in the decades following the end of the Cultural Revolution. Some scholars and journalists claim that Christianity in China is still expanding in the twenty-first century. In this study, the authors contrast evidence for such claims with the results from two decades of survey data. In 19 nationally representative surveys conducted since the early 2000s, the authors find no clear evidence that Christianity continues to grow as a share of China’s population. Surveys conducted in the past decade indicate that about 2 percent of Chinese adults identify as Christian. Contrary to claims that Christianity is rising in popularity among young Chinese, surveys consistently find that Christian identification is more common among seniors than among young adults. Despite their limitations, the authors argue that surveys provide crucial information about the recent trajectory of China’s Christian population.
Christian Diffusion, Development, and Capitalism: Evidence from China
Riccardo Di Cato & Jiachen Li
University of California Working Paper, November 2024
Abstract:
China's remarkable economic transformation since the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s has seen its private sector flourish and make a significant contribution to national GDP. This paper examines the historical factors underlying China's growing capitalist ideology, focusing on the influence of Christian missionaries between 1860 and 1936 on facilitating the adoption of modern banking and enterprises using a staggered difference-indifference design. We propose that the key mechanisms for this impact were human capital accumulation through education and the spread of Western economic ideas. A stronger effect of missionary schools, Protestant as opposed to Catholic missionaries, and the presence of a significant fraction of Christian-educated bankers support this idea. Additionally, we use an instrumental variable approach and find that the effect of missionary exposure dissipates between 1949 and 1978 and then takes off again, consistent with the idea of a "latent capitalism" that survived the Cultural Revolution. This paper helps us understand the origins and evolution of market-based capitalism through the lens of financial market development.
Protestantism and human capital: Evidence from early 20th century Ireland
Alan Fernihough & Stuart Henderson
Explorations in Economic History, January 2025
Abstract:
Using a large individual-level dataset, we explore the significance of religious affiliation for human capital variation in Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century. We construct a large sample based on the returns of male household heads in the 1901 census and explore variation in literacy across the three principal denominations: Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism and Presbyterianism. Protestantism, particularly Presbyterianism, is associated with higher levels of human capital. This denominational effect is remarkably robust, even when accounting for various control variables and alternative modelling specifications. Supplementary analyses reveal that these literacy disparities existed before the foundation of centralised national schooling in 1831 and were independent of school attendance, as Presbyterians exhibited lower attendance rates than Anglicans. We suggest that denomination mattered because it affected the incentives to accrue literacy ability to fully participate in religious and wider cultural life.
Spirituality is associated with psychological hardiness in U.S. army soldiers and civilians
Bryan Hedrick et al.
Military Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
As the Army continues to adapt to evolving mission demands and global threats, those who execute the mission -- both soldiers and Department of the Army (DA) civilians -- must also adapt to changing occupational demands and requirements. Occupational stress within the military community is a threat to health and wellbeing that impacts not only individual soldiers and civilian personnel, but also units, families, and the broader military community. Hardiness is an operational requirement for military success, spirituality might be a means to positively impact soldier and DA Civilian hardiness. This study sought to understand the relationship between spirituality and hardiness within the Army, which included data collected from U.S. Army soldiers (N = 313) and DA Civilians (N = 276). We hypothesized that increased individual spirituality have a direct relationship with the positive aspects of hardiness and an inverse relationship with the negative aspects of hardiness as defined by the dual process model of hardiness. Employing regression analysis, empirical support was found to support our hypotheses for relationships between spirituality and hardiness variables, with increased spirituality relating to increased positive hardiness and decreased negative hardiness traits. Military leaders can use that knowledge to develop and test targeted interventions that may help to increase positive hardiness and decrease negative hardiness in the Army. Further, Holistic Health and Fitness programming may benefit from improved psychological function by incorporating training that integrates hardiness and spirituality concepts.
The Feeling Is Not Mutual: Religious Belief Predicts Compatibility Between Science and Religion, but Scientific Belief Predicts Conflict
Natalia Zarzeczna et al.
Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, forthcoming
Abstract:
The aim of the present research was to examine the independent contribution of beliefs in science and religion, respectively, to perceptions of science–religion compatibility across diverse countries and religious groups. To assess this, we recruited participants from three countries (the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Kazakhstan; N = 684) and presented them with measures of belief in science and religious belief as independent constructs, such that the belief in science measure referred only to perceptions of science, without comparing science to religion, while the religious belief measure referred only to religious beliefs, without comparing religion to science. Participants then indicated the extent to which they saw conflict or compatibility between science and religion when it came to ontological/existential questions. Across countries, we found that religious belief, independently of belief in science, predicted strong science–religion compatibility perceptions, while belief in science, independently of religious belief, predicted conflict. Religious believers and believers in science have conflicting views on the relationship between science and religion, suggesting they may use different meaning systems to find meaning.
Globalization and religious resurgence: A comparative analysis
Brendan Szendrő
Politics and Religion, forthcoming
Abstract:
Why does religion continue to emerge as a flashpoint in the age of secularization? Although models of religious resurgence suggest that religious cleavages are more prominent in the modern era, other models continue to show declining religious involvement. What is needed is a theory that can observe both resurgence and secularization at the same time. I argue that globalization -- and the flow of people across borders, in particular -- provokes a religious backlash at the societal level due to its secularizing effects. As the public is exposed to new and diverse religious traditions, religiosity declines; as a result, however, religious practitioners become more aggressive toward other religious groups. I test this theory using data on globalization, religious discrimination, and religious practice. I find that types of globalization dealing with the flow of people and information across borders have an outsize effect on societal religious discrimination, or SRD. This effect, however, is contingent on a decline in religious practice. This study suggests that religious resurgence can take place in secularizing environments, and that both resurgence and secularization share root causes.
Military Power and Ideological Appeals of Religious Extremists
Luwei Ying
Journal of Politics, forthcoming
Abstract:
The proliferation of terrorist propaganda threatens societies worldwide. Yet, we know little about violent extremists’ strategy in disseminating their ideologies. This paper studies the ideological appeals of jihadi groups, among the most prominent contemporary conflict movements, and shows how these groups navigate between religious and secular narratives in response to the fluctuations in their military power. Weaker groups must prioritize their core believers and foreground a more radical religious ideal, while stronger groups seek broader support from more moderate individuals and thus pitch themselves more secularly. I illustrate this dynamic with an original database of 87 magazines published regularly by 35 jihadi groups from 1984 to 2019. Further, I leverage approximately 6 million tweets from 21,000 ISIS-related accounts in 2015 to examine the jihadists’ mobilization efforts regarding different audiences. Overall, I demonstrate that violent groups put more emphasis on their ideological brand when they are militarily weaker.
Thinking about God encourages intergroup prosociality even when conflict is salient
Michael Pasek et al.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent research documents that thinking about God encourages intergroup prosociality among believers. An open question is whether such increased prosociality is dampened by intergroup conflict. We conducted preregistered field experiments with two ethno-religious populations in Fiji: indigenous Christian iTaukei (N = 324) and Hindu Indo-Fijians (N = 280). In each study, we manipulated (between-person) whether participants thought about intergroup conflict before completing a dictator game in which we manipulated (within-person) whether participants thought about God’s preferences when allocating real money to an outgroup member. Although participants who reflected on intergroup conflict gave less money away to outgroup members, thinking about God led to significant and comparable increases in intergroup prosociality regardless of whether participants thought about conflict. Results challenge widely-held assumptions about the role of religious belief in intergroup conflict and raise questions about mechanisms that are often theorized to explain the spread of religious beliefs themselves.