Faith or morality? ‘Theological sediments’ depending on the centrality, content, and social context of personal religious construct systems

Chapter Summary

This chapter tries to analyse to what degree traditional denominational doctrines influence the personal beliefs of Christians today. The analysis was led by the assumption that personal beliefs are to some degree influenced by common traditional doctrines that are taught in preaching, lessons, and talks about religious issues, and can be understood as a kind of theological sediment in todays beliefs. The chapter describes the issue at stake was whether there exists a typical Catholic and a typical Lutheran belief in justification. Reflecting historical denominational doctrines and notions of justification several theoretical positions for Catholics and Lutherans were proposed, discussed and operationalised. The chapter is a post-hoc analysis using data from studies on German samples which were conducted to validate the Structure of- Religiosity-Test (S-R-T). Belief in the sinners justification was thought to be analysable using the given data.

Keywords: Catholic; German samples; Lutherans; sinners justification; structure of- religiosity-test(S-R-T); theological sediment; traditional denominational doctrines