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Awe of God, Congregational Embeddedness, and Religious Meaning in Life

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Review of Religious Research

Abstract

Researchers have argued for some time that emotions play a significant role in religious life. The purpose of this study is to focus on a religious emotion—awe of God—that has received relatively little attention in the literature. A latent variable model was developed to assess the following core relationships: (1) people who attend worship services more often will be more likely to experience awe of God; (2) greater awe of God will promote a greater sense of congregational cohesiveness (i.e., the belief that fellow church members share common values and beliefs); (3) individuals who participate in cohesive congregations will be more likely to feel they belong in the place where they worship; and (4) a greater sense of belonging in a congregation will be associated with a stronger sense of religious meaning in life. Analysis of data provided by a nationwide sample of middle-aged and older adults provides support for each of these relationships.

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Notes

  1. Although we did not discuss the relationship between church attendance and congregational cohesiveness it is, nevertheless, estimated in the model. We specify that church attendance promotes greater congregational cohesiveness, but other researchers may argue that greater cohesiveness invites greater attendance. Measures of identical measures of church attendance and congregational cohesiveness were available in the Wave 1 and Wave 2 data. This made it possible to estimate a longitudinal model that contains two key relationships. The first is the effect of Wave 1 church attendance on Wave 2 congregational cohesiveness controlling for congregational cohesiveness at Wave 1. The second key relationship has to do with the effect of Wave 1 congregational cohesiveness on Wave 2 church attendance controlling for church attendance at Wave 1. The findings reveal that church attendance at the baseline interview is significantly associated with change in congregational cohesiveness over time (β = .145; p < .001) while congregational cohesiveness at the baseline is not associated with change in church attendance over time (β = .068; ns.). These analyses provide some evidence that the relationship between church attendance and congregational cohesiveness is specified correctly in our model.

  2. The findings indicate that compared to women, men go to worship services less often (r = −.104; p < .001). Moreover, the data suggest that compared to women, men are less likely to experience awe of God (r = −.106; p < .001).

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Acknowledgments

This research was support by a Grants from the John Templeton Foundation and the National Institute on Aging (RO1 AG009221).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1420 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2029, USA

    Neal Krause & R. David Hayward

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  1. Neal Krause
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  2. R. David Hayward
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Correspondence to Neal Krause.

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Krause, N., Hayward, R.D. Awe of God, Congregational Embeddedness, and Religious Meaning in Life. Rev Relig Res 57, 219–238 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-014-0195-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-014-0195-9

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