Sin and Self-Functioning, Part 5: Antireligious Humanistic Values, Individualism, and the Community

Abstract

Grace alone or in combination with intrinsic religiosity was associated with less narcissistic Exploitiveness, Machiavellianism, and individualism while being congruent with a belief in authority and equalitarianism. Measures of individualism were related to a manipulative style of interpersonal relationships. The failure of religious variables to predict healthy self-functioning as measured by the Personal Orientation Inventory appeared to reflect an antireligious ideological bias built into this humanistically based questionnaire. Although humanistic self-values did not generally promote interpersonal manipulativeness, the data nevertheless supported recent arguments by communitarian theorists that an excessive individualism may have unfortunate social consequences and that beliefs rooted in the biblical tradition may help work against such liabilities.