Believing and Belonging in Europe

Reitsma, J.; Pelzer, Ben; Scheepers, P.L.H.; Schilderman, Hans

doi:10.1080/14616696.2012.726367

Cited by 23 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This question is likely to emerge if one looks at the longitudinal developments regarding the various Christian denominations in the Netherlands. Once an undeniably Christian nation, today the Netherlands rank among the most secular countries in the world (Reitsma et al 2012). That is not to say, that religious communities are no longer present in Dutch society.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Umbrellas of Conservative Belief: Explaining the Success of Evangelical Congregations in the Netherlands

Vermeer¹,

Scheepers²

2017

J Empir Theol

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Dutch society is characterized by a high degree of religious dis-affiliation and non-affiliation and most religious communities are facing hard times in the Netherlands. But there are also exceptions. Against the contemporary current of ongoing secularization, some religious communities seem to thrive like never before and even attract new members. But why is that? Why do some religious communities succeed in retaining and also attracting new members while others fail? This article focuses on successful evangelical congregations in the Netherlands and tries to account for their relative success. On the basis of a subcultural identity theory, it is argued that the success of evangelical congregations is largely due to the fact that they offer protective umbrellas of conservative belief in an otherwise very secular context. This line of thought is substantiated with empirical findings from a current research project into thriving evangelical congregations in the Netherlands. The article closes with some theoretical reflections on the future of evangelicalism in contemporary Dutch society.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Umbrellas of Conservative Belief: Explaining the Success of Evangelical Congregations in the Netherlands

Vermeer¹,

Scheepers²

2017

J Empir Theol

Self Cite

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“…The development of social security has proven to be a relevant factor in explaining secularity over time in Western countries (Reitsma, Pelzer, Scheepers, & Schilderman, 2012;Kregting et al, 2018). For instance, predictors of existential securities (i.e., political, material, and financial security) and religious socialization and control (i.e., being raised in a religious family or environment) have been shown to partly explain the difference in religious attendance across 60 countries, including the Netherlands and the US (Ruiter & van Tubergen, 2009).…”

Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compensatory Control and Belief in God: A Registered Replication Report Across Two Countries

Hoogeveen¹,

Wagenmakers²,

A³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Compensatory Control Theory (CCT) suggests that religious belief systems provide an external source of control that can substitute a perceived lack of personal control. In a seminal paper, Kay et al. (2008) experimentally demonstrated that a threat to personal control increases endorsement of the existence of a controlling God. In the current registered report, we conducted a high-powered (N = 829) direct replication of this effect, using samples from the Netherlands and the United States. Our results show moderate to strong evidence for the absence of an experimental effect across both countries: belief in a controlling God did not increase after a threat compared to an affirmation of personal control. In a complementary preregistered analysis, an inverse relation between general feelings of personal control and belief in a controlling God was found in the US, but not in the Netherlands. We discuss potential reasons for the replication failure of the experimental effect and cultural mechanisms explaining the cross-country difference in the correlational effect. Together, our findings suggest that experimental manipulations of control may be ineffective in shifting belief in God, but that individual differences in the experience of control may be related to religious beliefs in a way that is consistent with CCT.

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“…The development of social security has proven to be a relevant factor in explaining secularity over time in Western countries (Kregting et al, 2018;Reitsma, Pelzer, Scheepers, & Schilderman, 2012). For instance, predictors of existential securities (i.e.…”

Section: Motivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compensatory control and religious beliefs: a registered replication report across two countries

Hoogeveen

Wagenmakers

Kay

et al. 2018

Comprehensive Results in Social Psychology

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Compensatory Control Theory (CCT) suggests that religious belief systems provide an external source of control that can substitute a perceived lack of personal control. In a seminal paper, it was experimentally demonstrated that a threat to personal control increases endorsement of the existence of a controlling God. In the current registered report, we conducted a high-powered (N = 829) direct replication of this effect, using samples from the Netherlands and the United States (US). Our results show moderate to strong evidence for the absence of an experimental effect across both countries: belief in a controlling God did not increase after a threat compared to an affirmation of personal control. In a complementary preregistered analysis, an inverse relation between general feelings of personal control and belief in a controlling God was found in the US, but not in the Netherlands. We discuss potential reasons for the replication failure of the experimental effect and cultural mechanisms explaining the crosscountry difference in the correlational effect. Together, our findings suggest that experimental manipulations of control may be ineffective in shifting belief in God, but that individual differences in the experience of control may be related to religious beliefs in a way that is consistent with CCT.

show abstract

Believing and Belonging in Europe

Cited by 23 publications

References 24 publications

Umbrellas of Conservative Belief: Explaining the Success of Evangelical Congregations in the Netherlands

Umbrellas of Conservative Belief: Explaining the Success of Evangelical Congregations in the Netherlands

Compensatory Control and Belief in God: A Registered Replication Report Across Two Countries

Compensatory control and religious beliefs: a registered replication report across two countries

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