Date of Award

2008

Degree Name

Sociology

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Marty Laubach

Second Advisor

Richard Garnett

Third Advisor

Clayton McNearney

Abstract

Societies create their own worlds and, once created, these worlds have to be maintained. In particular, the plausibility of these worlds has to be legitimized for each new generation. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an instrument that will measure how Christians maintain the plausibility of their religious world. I have constructed a survey that will explore the social matrix encompassing a person’s religious beliefs, the actual beliefs themselves, and the extent to which they are certain of these beliefs. To determine how Christians maintain the plausibility of their religious beliefs in an increasingly secularized world, I have borrowed the modes of belief dilemma resolution developed by Robert Abelson (Abelson 1959). These modes are: denial, bolstering, differentiation, and transcendence. In addition, I have created “dilemmas of belief” with responses reflecting each of these modes of resolution.

Subject(s)

Christianity.

Belief and doubt.

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