INVENTORY OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF

Abstract

The Inventory of Religious Belief (IRB) is a 15-item psychological instrument designed to quantify an individual’s adherence to traditional Christian dogma. The scale uses a Likert-like format, ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” The items are balanced to capture the spectrum of belief: 8 items are worded in a fundamental or traditional direction, while 7 items are worded in a liberal direction, often pairing concepts to contrast traditional and progressive theological viewpoints.

The instrument is highly effective at measuring beliefs associated with conservative Christianity, assessing specific doctrinal issues such as the inerrancy of Scripture, the uniqueness of humans, and the necessity of belief in Jesus Christ for salvation. The scale’s scoring system is structured such that higher scores reflect greater conservatism and adherence to traditional dogma. The authors acknowledge that while the IRB is a strong measure of doctrinal conservatism, it does not comprehensively capture the entire spectrum of Christian identity or belief.

Keywords

Religious belief, Christian dogma, conservative Christianity, religious fundamentalism, psychological scale, Likert scale, doctrine, college students.

Authors

D. G. Brown, W. L. Lowe.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Inventory of Religious Belief (IRB) is to measure the extent to which an individual endorses specific tenets of traditional Christian dogma. The instrument was developed by Brown and Lowe (1951) to assess one core component of Christian identity—explicit doctrinal belief—recognizing that religious identity is multifaceted.

The scale was formulated to capture variance in adherence to conservative theological concepts, including beliefs about the inspiration of Scripture, the nature of humanity, the Trinity, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, and eschatological themes such as the eventual return of Christ and life after death. By including a variety of belief items, the authors anticipated and successfully measured the degree to which individuals embrace the complete scope of traditional Christian doctrine.

Construct

The IRB primarily measures Doctrinal Conservatism within the Christian tradition. The construct is defined by adherence to fundamental, historical beliefs typically associated with the conservative or evangelical wing of the faith. High scores indicate strong endorsement of these traditional dogmas, while low scores suggest a more liberal theological orientation or nonbelief.

The instrument’s design intentionally incorporates items reflecting potentially divisive issues within the church, such as the inerrancy of Scripture and the uniqueness of human beings in creation. This structure, which includes both traditionally and liberally worded items, allows for a nuanced assessment of this construct, effectively differentiating between individuals who accept traditional theological claims and those who embrace more modern or non-traditional views.

Validity

Several methods were employed by Brown and Lowe to assure the validity of the IRB. For initial content validity, the items were reviewed and affirmed by the dean of a Bible college, ensuring that the scale accurately reflected traditional Christian tenets.

For construct validity, the scale utilized a Known-groups validity approach. The IRB was administered to students from two distinct theological environments: a Bible college (representing high conservative belief) and a liberal theological seminary (representing low conservative belief). The difference in means was highly discriminative: Bible college students scored 73.8, while liberal seminary students scored 48.6, with no observed overlap in the score distributions between the two groups.

Additionally, scores on the inventory demonstrated convergent validity, correlating positively with traditional religious behaviors when administered to over 887 university students. These behaviors included frequency of prayer, Bible reading, church attendance, and financial contributions to the church. Further validation was provided by Virkler (1979), who found a strong correlation of 0.74 between the IRB score and self-defined theological orientation among active Christian pastors, confirming the scale’s ability to accurately reflect self-identified theological stance.

Reliability

The reliability of the Inventory of Religious Belief was assessed using internal consistency methods based on the responses of 100 randomly selected university students from the initial survey pool.

Utilizing a split-half procedure, where scores from randomly chosen halves of the inventory were correlated, the initial reliability coefficient was determined to be 0.77. When this coefficient was corrected using the Spearman-Brown formula, the estimated reliability coefficient for the full 15-item scale rose to 0.87, indicating a high level of internal consistency and stability for the measurement of doctrinal belief.

Factor Analysis

Information regarding formal factor analytic studies (such as Exploratory Factor Analysis or Confirmatory Factor Analysis) for the Inventory of Religious Belief was not explicitly detailed in the original publication by Brown and Lowe (1951). Therefore, the specific underlying factor structure or dimensionality of the scale is not documented in the foundational research.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report questionnaire, Psychological scale.

Format: 15 items, 5-point Likert response scale (Strongly Agree, Agree, Not Sure, Disagree, Strongly Disagree). Scores range from 15 to 75 (High score indicates conservatism).

Language Available: English (Original publication).

Population Group: Christian and non-Christian individuals; targeted at measuring adherence to Christian doctrinal beliefs.

Age Group: University students (Young Adults) and adults (Pastors).

Population Details: Initial standardization included 887 university students (male and female). The overall mean score was 47.16 (SD = 12.33). Protestant subgroups (n=622) included Baptists (mean=59.76), Lutherans (mean=53.43), and Methodists (mean=49.11). Catholic members (n=122) averaged 58.20 (SD=8.61), while non-church members (n=209) averaged 40.8 (SD=10.65).

Test Methodology: Pencil-and-paper administration. Liberal items are reverse scored (e.g., a “strongly agree” response to a liberal item receives the lowest score, 1). Scores for the individual items are summed to produce an overall score, ranging from a low of 15 (liberalism/nonbelief) to a high of 75 (conservatism).

Keywords

Theological conservatism, psychometrics, doctrinal belief, Christian identity, university norms, split-half reliability, Brown and Lowe.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Scale published 1951).

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A.

Correspondence Address: N/A.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1951.

Permissions and Fee: Published in 1951, the scale is generally considered readily accessible for academic research. Researchers should consult the original publication source, the Journal of Social Psychology, for usage guidelines.

Reference’s

• Brown, D. G., & Lowe, W. L. (1951). Religious beliefs and personality characteristics of college students. Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 103-129.

• Virkler, H. A. (1979). Counseling demands, procedures, and preparation of parish ministers: A descriptive study. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 7, 271-280.

• Virkler, H. A. (1980). The facilitativeness of parish ministers: A descriptive study. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 8, 140-146.

Items of the INVENTORY OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF

Please indicate the extent to which you (l) strong agree, (2) agree, (3) are not sure, (4) dis­ agree, or (5) strongly disagree with each of the following items.

1. It makes no difference whether one is a Christian or not as long as one has good will for others. (reverse scored)
2. I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God.
3. God created man separate and distinct from animals.
4. The idea of God is unnecessary in our enlightened age. (reverse scored)
5. There is no life after death. (reverse scored)
6. I believe Jesus was born of a virgin.
7. God exists as: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
8. The Bible is full of errors, misconceptions and contradictions. (reverse scored)
9. The gospel of Christ is the only way for mankind to be saved.
10. I think there have been many men in history just as great as Jesus. (reverse scored)
11. I believe there is a heaven and a hell.
12. Eternal life is the gift of God only to those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
13. I think a person can be happy and enjoy life without believing in God. (reverse scored)
14. In many ways the Bible has held back and retarded human progress. (reverse scored)
15. I believe in the personal, visible return of Christ to the earth.