Heinz Streib – författare

This book documents the current polarization in Germany regarding the issue of refugee immigration. It presents quantitative estimates for both xenophobia and xenophilia in the German population, including short-time changes. The book suggests a conceptual change of perspectives. It focuses not only on the pathogenic model that accounts for outcomes such as xenophobia, Islamophobia and other forms of (inter-religious) prejudice, but on a salutogenic model. In the book’s view, the salutogenic model entails xenosophia: the wisdom, creativity and inspiration that emerges from the encounter with the strange and the strange religion. The book addresses individual dispositions, which may lead to xenophobia or xenosophia, and takes into account predictors such as religiosity, religious schemata, value preferences, tolerance of complexity, and violence legitimizing norms of masculinity. A selection of case studies present typical biographical trajectories toward xenosophia.

This book examines what people mean when they say they are “spiritual”. It looks at the semantics of “spirituality”, the visibility of reasons for “spiritual” preference in biographies, in psychological dispositions, in cultural differences between Germany and the US, and in gender differences. It also examines the kind of biographical consequences that are associated with “spirituality”. The book reports the results of an online-questionnaire filled out by 773 respondents in Germany and 1113 in the US, personal interviews with a selected group of more than 100 persons, and an experiment. Based on the data collected, it reports results that are relevant for a number of scientific and practical disciplines. It makes a contribution to the semantics of everyday religious language and to the cross-cultural study of religion and to many related fields as well, because “spirituality” is evaluated in relation to personality, mysticism, well-being, religious styles, generativity, attachment, biography and atheism. The book draws attention to the – new and ever changing – ways in which people give names to their ultimate concern and symbolize their experiences of transcendence.

This book examines what people mean when they say they are “spiritual”. It looks at the semantics of “spirituality”, the visibility of reasons for “spiritual” preference in biographies, in psychological dispositions, in cultural differences between Germany and the US, and in gender differences. It also examines the kind of biographical consequences that are associated with “spirituality”. The book reports the results of an online-questionnaire filled out by 773 respondents in Germany and 1113 in the US, personal interviews with a selected group of more than 100 persons, and an experiment. Based on the data collected, it reports results that are relevant for a number of scientific and practical disciplines. It makes a contribution to the semantics of everyday religious language and to the cross-cultural study of religion and to many related fields as well, because “spirituality” is evaluated in relation to personality, mysticism, well-being, religious styles, generativity, attachment, biography and atheism. The book draws attention to the – new and ever changing – ways in which people give names to their ultimate concern and symbolize their experiences of transcendence.

This book examines what people mean when they say they are “spiritual”. It looks at the semantics of “spirituality”, the visibility of reasons for “spiritual” preference in biographies, in psychological dispositions, in cultural differences between Germany and the US, and in gender differences. It also examines the kind of biographical consequences that are associated with “spirituality”. The book reports the results of an online-questionnaire filled out by 773 respondents in Germany and 1113 in the US, personal interviews with a selected group of more than 100 persons, and an experiment. Based on the data collected, it reports results that are relevant for a number of scientific and practical disciplines. It makes a contribution to the semantics of everyday religious language and to the cross-cultural study of religion and to many related fields as well, because “spirituality” is evaluated in relation to personality, mysticism, well-being, religious styles, generativity, attachment, biography and atheism. The book draws attention to the – new and ever changing – ways in which people give names to their ultimate concern and symbolize their experiences of transcendence.

This book documents the current polarization in Germany regarding the issue of refugee immigration. It presents quantitative estimates for both xenophobia and xenophilia in the German population, including short-time changes. The book suggests a conceptual change of perspectives. It focuses not only on the pathogenic model that accounts for outcomes such as xenophobia, Islamophobia and other forms of (inter-religious) prejudice, but on a salutogenic model. In the book’s view, the salutogenic model entails xenosophia: the wisdom, creativity and inspiration that emerges from the encounter with the strange and the strange religion. The book addresses individual dispositions, which may lead to xenophobia or xenosophia, and takes into account predictors such as religiosity, religious schemata, value preferences, tolerance of complexity, and violence legitimizing norms of masculinity. A selection of case studies present typical biographical trajectories toward xenosophia.

This book presents case studies and empirical data of a phenomenon which increasingly gains popularity in Western societies: deconversion. There is, the authors argue, no better word than deconversion to describe processes of disengagement from religious orientations because these have much in common with conversion. Termination of membership may eventually be the final step of deconversion, but it involves biographical and psychological dynamics which can and need to be reconstructed by qualitative approaches and analyzed by quantitative instruments.In the Bielefeld-based Cross-Cultural Study on Deconversion disengagement processes from a variety of religious backgrounds in the USA and in Germany were examined, ranging from well-established religious organizations to new religious and fundamentalist groups. Nearly 1,200 persons participated in thestudy and were interviewed from 2002 to 2005. In the focus of the study are 100 deconverts from the USA and from Germany who were examined with narrative interviews, faith development interviews and an extensive questionnaire. For case study elaboration, the study followed a research design with an innovative triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data. Four chapters, corresponding to four types of deconversion, present 21 case studies. The highlights of the research project are new data on spirituality – the deconverts in particular appear to prefer a »more spiritual than religious« self-identification – and in-depth analyses of a variety of deconversion narratives with special focus on personality factors, motivation, attitudes, religious development, psychological well-being and growth, religious fundamentalism and right-wing authoritarianism. The results of this project which was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft are of special relevance for counselling and pastoral care, for religious education and for people concerned with administration and management of religious groups and churches, but also for a wider audience interested in contemporary changes in the religious fields in the USA and Germany.

Many people in the USA, but also in Germany self-identify as "spiritual" or say "I am more spiritual than religious." But what exactly is the meaning of "spirituality"? What are the psychological and biographical underpinnings of preferences for this self-identification? Barbara Keller and Heinz Streib answer these questions with reference to results of the Bielefeld-based Cross-cultural Study on "Spirituality" – with focus on the German participants. The authors present qualitative and quantitative results that are relevant for researchers as well as for people working in education, counseling, churches and the media.

Die seit der Aufklärung und insbesondere der Französischen Revolution machtvoll voranschreitende Säkularisierung und die damit verbundene Herauslösung von Politik,Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft aus theologisch-kirchlichen Deutungen führte nicht zum Verschwinden der Religionen, doch hat die Religion im pluralistischen Gemeinwesenseitdem einen wesentlich veränderten Stellenwert. Anders als in England und den USA, wo der Aufbau des neuzeitlichen und modernen Staates weitgehend unbelastet vonGlaubenskämpfen und staatlich-kirchlichen Konflikten vor sich ging, vollzog sich in Kontinentaleuropa die Entwicklung von Demokratie und Menschenrechten in scharferAuseinandersetzung mit Kirche und christlichem Glauben. Dieser war in der Monarchie Staatsräson, in Deutschland noch bis zum Zusammenbruch des Kaiserreiches 1918, wobis dato eine enge Bindung zwischen staatlicher und kirchlicher Macht – Thron und Altar – herrschte.Über Jahrzehnte war Religion ein eher unterrepräsentierter Themenbereich in den großen politischen Auseinandersetzungen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland.Religionspolitische Fragestellungen und Konflikte werden in der Öffentlichkeit allerdings zunehmend kontrovers diskutiert, und Politiker/-innen unterschiedlicher Couleurbetonen nachdrücklich die Bedeutung von Religionen und Glaubensgemeinschaften für Staat, Demokratie und Gesellschaft. Gleichzeitig finden religiöseTransformationsprozesse in der Gesellschaft statt, welche nicht zuletzt durch Zuwanderung beschleunigt werden, und es wird intensiv debattiert, wie mit religiös motivierterDiskriminierung und Gewalt umgegangen werden kann.

How has faith developed in the US and German societies across the last decades? In a three-wave longitudinal investigation of faith development, this study presents the changes of worldview and meaning-making that people associate with their religious, spiritual, agnostic and atheist identifications. For almost two decades, research teams in Chattanooga (USA) and Bielefeld (Germany) have invited and re-invited hundreds of people to participate in a personal interview and to answer an extensive questionnaire in order to better understand the reasons and the consequences of their continuity or discontinuity in religious, spiritual, or non-theistic faith.

Changes in the religious landscape present challenges to conceptualization, methodology and empirical research of religion. The volume, Religion inside and outside Traditional Institutions, which includes contributions to the 2nd conference of the International Society for Empirical Research in Theology (ISERT) in Bielefeld, Germany, responds to these contemporary challenges. While the concept of religious praxis is their common theme, they include a focus on deinstitutionalized religion. The contributions in the first part present and discuss a variety of innovative conceptual, paradigmatic and methodological approaches. Distinguished reports from quantitative and qualitative empirical research make up the second part of this volume. Taken together, they may inspire conceptual and methodological discussion and encourage further research in empirical theology. Contributors include: Johannes A. van der Ven, Leslie J. Francis, Hans-Günter Heimbrock, Tobias Kläden, Chris Hermans, Hans Schilderman, Kees de Groot, Don S. Browning, Stefan Huber, Ulrich Feeser-Lichterfeld, Anke Terörde, Angela Kaupp, Astrid Dinter, Carsten Gennerich.