Questioning the Need for a Special Methodology for the Study of Eastern Orthodoxy

Abstract

The particular differences of Eastern Orthodoxy alleged by Tomka (2006) to demand a ``special research methodology'' are tested on a sample of the Serbian Orthodox, comparing them to Slovenian Catholics and American Protestants. The author found no important differences in the direction suggested by Tomka, with respect to the relation between traditionalism and religiosity, to religious experience, to civil religion, to quest religiosity, to religious deeds/ sacrifices (consequential religiosity), either structurally or as to magnitude. The exception is to be found in a somewhat stronger link between traditionalism and religiosity among the Orthodox, but the level of traditionalism among this group is lower than in the American Protestant case. Most of the differences found between the groups are attributable to higher magnitudes of religiosity in the American Protestant sample, but a clear peculiarity emerged indicating a higher presence of guilt religiosity in the Serbian Orthodox sample. The concept of God in this environment is that of a punishing God, along with a predominance of extrinsic psychological religiosity, leading to a psychologically disaffected (negative affect) situation.