The Christian Orthodoxy Scale

Abstract

The Christian Orthodoxy (CO) Scale is a psychometric instrument designed as a relatively unidimensional measure assessing the degree to which an individual accepts beliefs deemed central to historical Christianity. These beliefs are often encapsulated in foundational statements such as the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. The scale specifically taps into acceptance of core doctrines, including the existence and nature of God (the Trinity), the divinity and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the inspiration of the Bible, and the efficacy of prayer.

Two versions of the CO Scale exist: the original 24-item long form (Fullerton & Hunsberger, 1982) and a statistically robust, highly correlated six-item short form (Hunsberger, 1989). The full scale utilizes a 7-point Likert scale response format and typically takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete, yielding a total score ranging from 24 to 168.

Keywords

Christian Orthodoxy, Religious Beliefs, Psychometric Scale, Psychometrics, Fundamentalism, Religious Measurement, Unidimensionality, Likert scale, Christianity.

Authors

J. T. Fullerton, B. Hunsberger

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Christian Orthodoxy (CO) Scale is to provide a standardized, quantifiable measure of the acceptance of core Christian tenets. While Christian denominations have varied historically, this scale focuses on the fundamental, “bedrock” statements that define the faith across mainline traditions.

The scale serves researchers and practitioners by offering a clear and consistent assessment tool whose resulting score can be meaningfully compared across various religious denominations and groups, allowing for robust analysis of religious belief systems and their behavioral correlates.

Construct

The CO Scale operationalizes the construct of Christian Orthodoxy, defined as the degree of adherence to specific, non-negotiable theological beliefs shared across Christianity. The items are derived from key doctrinal categories, including:

• The existence and nature of God (the Trinity).
• God as creator of humankind.
• The divinity of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Birth.
• Jesus’ mission, death, and Resurrection.
• The imminent return of Christ and God’s judgment after death.
• The inspiration of the Bible and the occurrence of miracles.
• The efficacy of prayer and the concept of life after death.

The theoretical premise of the scale is that these diverse elements are tightly interconnected, forming a cohesive, unidimensional construct representing orthodox belief acceptance.

Validity

The CO Scale demonstrates impressive validity through both predictive correlation and known-groups analysis. The scale exhibits strong correlations with external measures of religious commitment and practice, indicating high criterion validity. Key validity coefficients include:

• Overall religious behavior (.75)
• Extent of trust in the religious guidance of the Bible (.77)
• Frequency of prayer (.70)
• Trust in the guidance of the church (.68)
• Attendance at religious services (.62)
• Scriptural-devotional reading (.57)

Furthermore, the scale exhibits strong known-groups validity. For instance, individuals identified as apostates (those who rejected their religious upbringing) registered a significantly low mean CO score (61.8), while those who merely switched denominations maintained a high mean score (130.4). This clear differentiation confirms that the scale accurately measures the intended construct of orthodox belief acceptance versus rejection.

Reliability

The CO Scale possesses exceptionally strong statistical reliability properties, suggesting high internal consistency and stability. Across the various standardization samples utilized, the internal consistency reliability coefficients (often measured by Cronbach’s alpha) were uniformly high, registering at .98 for most samples, with the lowest observed coefficient being .97. Mean inter-item correlation coefficients also range robustly from .57 to .70.

These findings collectively confirm that the items are highly cohesive and reliable, supporting the claim that the CO Scale provides a consistent and precise measurement of orthodox belief.

Factor Analysis

The psychometric structure of the CO Scale was examined through factor analysis. This analysis revealed strong evidence supporting the intended structure of the instrument. Specifically, the findings indicated that only one dominant factor runs through the entire set of items, and all individual items load significantly onto this single factor. This statistical result strongly supports the authors’ claim that the CO Scale is a genuinely unidimensional measure of orthodox belief, meaning it measures a single underlying construct rather than multiple distinct facets of religiosity.

Instrument

Test Type:

Self-report attitude survey; Psychometric scale

Format:

24 items (long form) or 6 items (short form), administered via paper-and-pencil or digital format.

Language Available:

English (original validation samples were predominantly Canadian and Australian).

Population Group:

Individuals from Christian backgrounds (Protestant and Catholic), including students, university-aged adults, and parents.

Age Group:

Adolescents (high school students) through adults.

Population Details:

Standardization samples included 2,297 subjects, primarily high school and university students from Manitoba, Canada, covering a cross-section of socioeconomic strata. Separate means and standard deviations are available for male and female respondents, as well as specific groups like apostates and denominational switchers.

Test Methodology:

Respondents rate their agreement or disagreement with each statement on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from -3 (strongly disagree) to +3 (strongly agree), with 0 as the neutral point. Items are scored such that disagreement with negatively worded items indicates orthodoxy. A constant of 4 is added to the raw score of each item before summation to ensure a positive total score (24 to 168).

Keywords

Orthodox Christianity, Religious Psychology, Scale Validation, Psychological Testing, Belief Acceptance, Fullerton, Hunsberger, Religious Denominations.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier:

[Not provided in source material]

Affiliation Email addresses:

[Not provided in source material]

Correspondence Address:

[Not provided in source material]

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The original long form of the scale was published in 1982, and the short form was published in 1989. The scale items and validation data are published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Copyright for the scale items and associated research is held by the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (© 1982, 1989).

Reference’s

Fullerton, J. T., & Hunsberger, B. (1982). A unidimensional measure of Christian orthodoxy. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 21, 317-326.

Hunsberger, B. (1989). A short version of the Christian orthodoxy scale. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 28, 360-365.

Altemeyer, B., & Hunsberger, B. (1992). Authoritarianism, religious fundamentalism, quest, and prejudice. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2, 113-133.

Kirkpatrick, L. A. (1993). Fundamentalism, Christian orthodoxy, and intrinsic religious orientation as predictors of discriminatory attitudes. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 32, 256-268.

Pratt, M. W., Hunsberger, B., Pancer, S. M., & Roth, D. (1992). Reflections on religion: Aging, belief orthodoxy, and interpersonal conflict in the complexity of adult thinking about religious issues. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 31, 514-522.

Hunsberger, B., Pratt, M., & Pancer, S. M. (1994). Religious fundamentalism and integrative complexity of thought: A relationship for existential content only? Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 33, 335-346.

Pancer, S. M., Jackson, L. M., Hunsberger, B., Pratt, M. W., & Lea, J. (1995). Religious orthodoxy and the complexity of thought about religious and nonreligious issues. Journal of Personality, 63, 213-232.

Items of the THE CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY SCALE

This survey includes a number of statements related to specific religious beliefs. You will probably find that you agree with some of the statements and disagree with others, to varying extents. Please mark your opinion on the line to the left of each statement, according to the amount of your agreement or disagreement, by using the following scale:

Write down a –

• 3 in the space provided if you strongly disagree with the statement,
• 2 in the space provided if you moderately disagree with the statement,
• I in the space provided if you slightly disagree with the statement.

Write down a

• + I in the space provided if you slightly agree with the statement,
• + 2 in the space provided if you moderately agree with the statement,
• + 3 in the space provided if you strongly agree with the statement.

If you feel exactly and precisely neutral about a statement, write down a “O” in the space provided.

1. God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. Man is not a special creature made in the image of God; he is simply a recent development in the process of animal evolution.
3. Jesus Christ was the divine Son of God.
4. The Bible is the word of God given to guide man to grace and salvation.
5. * Those who feel that God answers prayers are just deceiving themselves.
6. * It is ridiculous to believe that Jesus Christ could be both human and divine.
7. Jesus was born of a virgin.
8. _ The Bible may be an important book of moral teachings, but it was no more inspired by God than were many other such books in the history of Man.
9. _ The concept of God is an old superstition that is no longer needed to explain things in the modern era.
10. Christ will return to the earth someday.
11. _ Most of the religions in the world have miracle stories in their traditions; but there is no reason to believe any of them are true, including those found in the Bible.
12. God hears all of our prayers.
13. Jesus Christ may have been a great ethical teacher, as other men have been in history. But he was not the divine Son of God.
14. God made man of dust in His own image and breathed life into him.
15. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God provided a way for the forgiveness of man’s sins.
16. _ Despite what many people believe, there is no such thing as a God who is aware of Man’s actions.
17. Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried but on the third day He arose from the dead.
18. In all likelihood there is no such things as a God-given immortal soul in Man which lives on after death.
19. If there ever was such a person as Jesus of Nazareth, he is dead now and will never walk the earth again.
20. Jesus miraculously changed real water into real wine.
21. There is a God who is concerned with everyone’s actions.
22. Jesus’ death on the cross, if it actually occurred, did nothing in and of itself to save Mankind.
23. There is really no reason to hold to the idea that Jesus was born of a virgin. Jesus’ life showed better than anything else that he was exceptional, so why rely on old myths that don’t makesense.
24. The Resurrection proves beyond a doubt that Jesus was the Christ or Messiah of God.

Note: Items indicated by an asterisk (*) are negatively worded and keyed in reverse during scoring.