The term religion is correspondingly reserved for...

The term religion is correspondingly reserved for institutionalized activity and formalized beliefs, things that can be seen as peripheral to spiritual tasks. The trend in defining religion is moving away from a broad conceptualization of the institutional and the individual toward a more narrow definition in terms of the institutional side of life.

The trend in defining spirituality is to describe it in terms of individual expression that speaks to a person’s highest level of human functioning (Emmons, 1999). Despite such trends, there is still a great deal of controversy about how to define religion and spirituality.

Many psychologists of religion still believe that religion can be expressed both institutionally and individually, and that spirituality is a core dimension of the psychology of religion (Pargament, 1997; Zinnbauer, Pargament, & Scott, 1999). Dimensions of Religious Commitment Our exploration of the definition of religion suggests that the concept of religion is multifaceted and multidimensional.

The dimensions of religious commitment include religious belief, religious practice, religious feeling, religious knowledge, and religious effects (Glock, 1962). Religious belief is the ideological dimension and doctrine of religious commitment - the content of what someone believes. For example, one person might believe that Jesus was the Messiah and rose from the dead, whereas another person might believe that the Messiah has not yet come.

These individuals’ theologies differ in doctrinal content. Religious practice is the ritualistic dimension of religious commitment - the behaviors someone is expected to perform as part of a particular religion. The religious practice could include singing, chanting, scripture reading, going to confession, or bowing to a stick or a stone. It is important to note that these acts are part of what defines religion rather than merely consequences of it.

Religious feeling is the experiential dimension of religious commitment, which consists of the emotions, states of consciousness, or sense of well-being, dread, freedom, or guilt that are part of a person’s religiousness.