S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 2 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 6 3 7 Amir Azarvan 3.3 Attitudes Towards Perceived Sociopolitical Threats From a list consisting of atheists, conservatives, immigrants, liberals, libertarians, neo-Nazis (right-wing extremists), religious fundamentalists and socialists, survey respondents were asked to identify the one social or political group they found the most threatening (see Eisenstein 2006 for a near- ly identical approach). They were then asked questions designed to gauge their level of tolerance and acceptance of members of this particular group. Round 1 respondents were asked to express their levels of admiration, respect, hostility, friendliness, and hatred towards members of this group on 0–9 scales. These questions were adapted from Renfro et al. (2006) [6]. Round 2 respondents were asked to indicate the degree to which they concurred with the four statements listed in Table 2. Table 2. Measures of Tolerance and Acceptance To what extent do you agree with each of the following statements? Options: Strongly agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree 1.) I sometimes find it difficult to see things from this group’s point of view. 2.) I would be willing to befriend a member of this group. 3.) I feel anger towards members of this group. 4.) I feel hatred towards members of this group. 3.4 Measuring Spiritual Involvement In order to assess the impact of spirituality, it is necessary to measure it according to each religion’s unique standards of spiritual commitment, as these standards differ markedly across religious traditions. As Hill and Maltby (2009, 37) note, many measures of religiosity and spirituality “are culturally insensitive and do not generalize well to other cultures and religious traditions outside of that with which it was first created”. Thus, it would be highly misleading to use a single, all-encompassing measure of spirituality. Writing, as I am, from an Orthodox perspective, my method of measuring spiritual involvement involves drawing from the ascetical writings of the elders of the Orthodox Church. One such elder is the renowned monastic and bishop, St. Theophan the Recluse, who succinctly summarizes the prerequisites of spiritual growth: “These, then, are the activities and exercised which are the means of healing our powers and bringing them back to our lost purity and wholeness: fasting, labor, vigil, solitude, withdrawal from the world, control of the senses, reading of the scriptures and the Holy Fathers, attendance at church, frequent confession and communion” (St. Theophan 139). I constructed an Index of Spirituality based on participation in most of these activities [7]. Table 3 lists the questions that were specifically asked of survey respondents.
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