Classifications of Religious Orientation

Abstract

C LASSIFICATIONS of religious institutions and religious leaders have been developed by sociologists of religion,' but few attempts have been made to classify people in their orientation to religion. Typologies within psychology of religion have usually been developed with reference to some feature of Christian behaviour. Thus William James accepted Starbuck's typology based on whether people are susceptible to gradual or sudden conversion,2 sayingthat the difference between two types is after all not radical.3 When discussing conversion, Clark assumes differences between individuals in comparing proportions of conversions from 'sacramental Churches' with those from Churches of a 'sterner theology. '4 He attributes these differences to theological features of denominations, asserting that in Catholicism there is 'less anxiety because of confession, sacraments and such like,' and so individual's acceptance of salvation needs less emphasis. Such differences might be expected to show in personality functioning, but there is little empirical sup-

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