Resonance or Alienation: An Empirical Study on the Influencing Factors of Religious Belief Choices among China’s Generation Z

The relationship between secularity or modernity and religious belief choices is a hot topic of academic concern. However, there has been scarce attention from the academic community regarding the religious belief choices and driving factors of China’s Generation Z, who have grown up in a secular or...

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Authors: Chen, Li (Author) ; Zeng, Sheng 1986- (Author) ; Tian, Zaizhen (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: MDPI 2023
In: Religions
Year: 2023, Volume: 14, Issue: 9
Further subjects:B influencing factors
B China’s Generation Z
B religious belief choices
B Modernity
B CRS
B Secularization
B Cost and Rewards
B Alienation
B Resonance
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Summary:The relationship between secularity or modernity and religious belief choices is a hot topic of academic concern. However, there has been scarce attention from the academic community regarding the religious belief choices and driving factors of China’s Generation Z, who have grown up in a secular or modern society. In this paper, we use the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) and a modified Cost and Rewards Scale to measure this group’s tendency towards “religious centrality”, and investigate the inherent driving factors using logistic regression. The results show that the religiousness of China’s Generation Z is higher than the overall level of religious beliefs in China. Their choice of religious beliefs is the result of a rational consideration and balance of “religious rewards”, but most of them are not driven by the consideration of “afterlife rewards” as the supernatural core factor of religion. Instead, they are driven by the actual benefits brought by the choice of religious beliefs and the factors that affect these benefits, such as religious socialization. This conclusion validates the opinions of Stark and Finke, as well as Hartmut Rosa, and breaks the status quo of single research model and method in previous relevant studies.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel14091161