Abstract
Quest religiosity is characterized by an openness toward religious doubt and uncertainty as a way to grow existentially. The current paper examines how death awareness contributes to quest (vs low quest) Christians’ reactions toward a Jesus depicted as doing biologically human actions (e.g., vomiting, bleeding). Study 1 evaluated quest persons’ reactions to either a humanistic Christ or a neutral Jesus passage. Essay evaluations were examined in Study 2 as a function of quest and mortality salience. Study 3 measured death-thought accessibility following a creaturely Jesus prime for quest individuals. Participants who scored low on quest were more negative toward a creaturely, rather than neutral, Jesus. These effects were exaggerated following thoughts of death. Finally, low quest persons reported heightened death thoughts due to incarnational ambivalence. The implications are discussed.
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Data and analysis code are available by request by emailing the first author.
Notes
An alternative explanation for the obtained results is that heightened death-thought accessibility may be a result of belief rigidity (in general) rather than spiritual defensiveness (in particular). To examine this possibility, we included right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and its associated interactions, into a moderated regression. This characteristic is highly correlated with fundamentalism and low quest, while remaining secular (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992). The results revealed that RWA was not a predictor, b = .05 (SE = .11), t = .44, p = .66, R2 = .002, nor did it interact with the essay prime and/or quest on the accessibility of death-related thoughts, bs ≤ .29 (SEs ≤ .24), ts ≤ .1.18, p ≥ .24, R2s ≤ .01. Importantly, the 2-way interaction between essay and quest on death-thought accessibility remained significant when RWA was included in the model b = .41 (SE = .17), t = 2.42, p = .02. These results thus suggest some specificity with respect to religiosity rather than general defensiveness. Future research, however, would benefit from replication with the use of other measures of belief rigidity (e.g., personal need for structure, belief in a just world)
Religious fundamentalism is the tendency to perceive the world as a dangerous place, to hold self-righteous beliefs, and to be close-minded (Altemeyer & Hunsberger, 1992). Given the strong negative correlation between quest and fundamentalism, similar yet reverse predictions can be made for this trait. In support, we conducted additional work to show that high religious fundamentalists evaluate a creaturely essay about Christ more negatively than a neutral one; this effect is exaggerated by reminders of death; and although marginal, individuals with greater religious fundamentalism experience heightened death-thought accessibility in the creaturely (vs. neutral) Jesus condition. In combination with the current results, these findings suggest that persons more dogmatic in their religious orientation (i.e., high fundamentalists, low questers) experience particularly aversive reactions toward thoughts of incarnational ambivalence.
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Appendix
Appendix
Instructions: The following short essay was a senior honors student at a medium-sized university. Students were asked to write on the topic of Jesus Christ. Please read the essay at your own pace. After finishing, there will be a couple of questions about the essay. The questions will be looking for your first natural gut impression of the essay.
Creaturely Essay: Many people do not realize how human Jesus actually was. Jesus was a baby who soiled himself, spit up, and cried when he was hungry; he was completely dependent upon his parents for meeting his every need. He continued to experience human needs throughout his life. Having been trained as a carpenter long before the advent of power tools, Jesus probably cut himself, bled and had a number of injuries that might have gotten infected. He was also dusty, tired, hot and sweaty most of the time as a result of his trade. In his later years, Jesus spent much of his time traveling. He would walk for weeks or months at a time leaving him hungry and tired with bad breath and bad body odor. Jesus also suffered from illnesses including vomiting and diarrhea. All of this suggests that Jesus was just a physical man. He was subject to weariness, hunger, thirst, agony and pain—the physical limitations of human nature.
Neutral Essay: There’s been some debate about Jesus’ life between the ages of 12 and 30. Some scholars have said that he stayed at home with his parents and was raised as a carpenter. Given that it was a custom for Jews of the first century to teach their sons the family trade, Jesus learned from his father, Joseph, the skills involved with being a carpenter. Other scholars have claimed that Jesus spent the “lost years” traveling the world to countries such as India, Nepal, China, and Tibet. Here he continued his education learning about different eastern philosophies. Some archeologists claim evidence (i.e., manuscripts, artifacts, and writings) documenting Jesus’ travels to these lands. Although there are many theories about the life of Jesus during these years, there is not much solid evidence to support any one of them; this period of his life is largely open to speculation.
Questions: Now think about the essay you just read. Respond to the following questions with your first gut response (All items were scored on a 7-point Likert scale with scale anchors associated with the question).
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How much do you think you would like this person?
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How intelligent do you believe this person to be?
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How knowledgeable do you believe this person to be?
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Is this person’s opinion well-informed?
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How much do you agree with this person’s opinion?
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From your perspective, how valid do you think this person’s opinion is of the topic they discussed?
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Arrowood, R.B., Cox, C.R. & Swets, J. Taking the Divinity from the Divine: The Interaction Between Death Concerns and Religiosity on the Evaluation of a Human Jesus. J Relig Health 60, 4097–4114 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01310-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-021-01310-w