Religious Belief Inventory

Abstract

The Religious Belief Inventory (RBI) is a psychological scale developed by R. R. Lee (1965) to measure the extent to which an individual agrees with various doctrines of religious faith. Its development was rooted in the premise that theological beliefs naturally cluster into homogeneous patterns, reflecting historical systems within Christian thought. The RBI is a multidimensional instrument comprising seven initial scales: Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, Humanism, Scientism, Puritanism, Pietism, and Liberalism. Although initially focused on historical currents within Methodism, Lee intended the RBI to generalize across Protestant populations for measuring broader religious trends. The complete inventory consists of 60 items scored on a 5-point “agree-disagree” continuum, with possible scores ranging from 0 to 32 for each scale.

Keywords

Religious Belief Inventory, RBI, Theological belief, Personality, Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, Humanism, Puritanism, Pietism, Liberalism, Psychometrics, Methodism, Religious orientation.

Authors

R. R. Lee

Purpose

The primary objective for the creation of the Religious Belief Inventory (RBI) was to establish an empirical method for systematically investigating the relationship between specific theological beliefs and various dimensions of personality. Lee sought to move beyond simple measures of religiosity by quantifying distinct theological orientations.

The RBI was specifically designed to provide quantifiable scores across seven theoretically derived dimensions of religious belief. This allowed researchers to test hypotheses concerning how these orientations might be differentially associated with established psychological measures, thereby facilitating deeper insights into the psychology of religion and theological variance.

Construct

The central construct measured by the RBI is multidimensional religious orientation, defined as the degree of agreement with specific, historically recognized doctrines within Christian thought. The inventory posits that religious belief is not monolithic but rather composed of distinct, measurable systems. The seven subscales operationalize this construct:

• Fundamentalism: Measures adherence to literal interpretations of scripture and traditional doctrines.
• Orthodoxy: Measures acceptance of established, mainstream denominational doctrines.
• Humanism: Measures the emphasis placed on human potential, reason, and ethical action over divine revelation.
• Scientism: Measures the degree to which one accepts scientific explanations, potentially conflicting with traditional religious views.
• Puritanism: Measures adherence to strict moral codes, self-discipline, and ascetic values.
• Pietism: Measures the importance of personal, emotional faith, devotional practices, and inner spiritual experience.
• Liberalism: Measures acceptance of flexible, modern theological interpretations and doctrinal evolution.

Validity

The validity of the four core scales (Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, Humanism, and Puritanism) was supported through known-groups validation across three distinct samples: seminary students, secular university students, and individuals with atheistic or agnostic beliefs. Scores aligned with theoretical expectations, demonstrating strong discriminative validity.

Specifically, the agnostic/atheistic sample scored significantly lower on the Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, and Puritanism scales compared to the religious and secular student samples. Conversely, both the atheistic/agnostic and secular university students scored significantly higher on the Humanism scale than the seminary sample. These differential patterns strongly endorse the construct validity of these four dimensions.

Lee also explored concurrent validity by correlating RBI scores with established measures, including the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test, the Rorschach Inkblot Test, and the Crowne-Marlowe Social Desirability Test. Although initial specific hypotheses regarding personality correlations were not universally confirmed, the RBI proved valuable in gleaning information on personality characteristics associated with various religious orientations, which subsequent research has continued to investigate.

Reliability

Initial testing revealed that only Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, and Humanism were reliable and homogeneous. Following a revision of the inventory (Revised RBI), only Fundamentalism and Orthodoxy remained psychometrically sound. Lee ultimately recommended a “combined” version, utilizing the revised measure supplemented by the original Humanism Scale, resulting in four robust scales: Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, Humanism, and Puritanism (where the revised Puritanism scale showed improved reliability).

The Fundamentalism scale consistently demonstrated the strongest overall psychometric properties. Reliability and homogeneity statistics for the four sound scales (Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, Humanism, Puritanism) were reported as follows:

• Guttman Reproducibility Coefficients (Homogeneity measure): .93, .88, .88, and .94, respectively.
• Kuder-Richardson Reliability Coefficients: .72, .69, .50, and .62, respectively.
• Split-half Reliability Coefficients: .70, .54, .45, and .60, respectively.

Factor Analysis

The theoretical foundation of the RBI rests on the concept of theological systems clustering into homogeneous patterns. Although detailed factor analytical data is not provided, the internal consistency and structure of the scales were assessed using measures of homogeneity.

The high Guttman reproducibility coefficients (.93 to .94 for the core scales) serve as strong evidence that the items within the Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, Humanism, and Puritanism scales measure distinct, singular dimensions, supporting the intended multidimensional structure of the religious orientations identified by Lee.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological scale

Format: 60 items in total, consisting of seven primary scales of eight items each, plus four ad hoc items. Items are rated on a 5-point “agree-disagree” continuum. Four items per scale are reverse scored. Total possible score per scale ranges from 0 to 32.

Language Available: English (Original development)

Population Group: Primarily intended for academic research involving theological students or clerical populations, but standardized on various groups.

Age Group: Adults (University and Seminary populations)

Population Details: Normative data was established using three samples: 302 Garrett Theological Seminary students, 111 Northwestern University undergraduate students, and 26 individuals with atheistic or agnostic orientations.

Test Methodology: The measure is self-administered and requires approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Keywords

Religious Belief Inventory, RBI, Theological personality, Psychometrics, Fundamentalism, Orthodoxy, Humanism, Puritanism, Religious trends, Scale development, R. R. Lee.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: N/A

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1965 (Original development)

Permissions and Fees: The original measure was presented in an unpublished doctoral dissertation. Users should contact the relevant institution (Northwestern University) or subsequent researchers for information regarding current permissions or usage fees.

Practical Considerations: Caveats for interpretation include issues with negatively worded items, sophisticated language (e.g., “fallible,” item 4; “natural procreation,” item 20), obscure scriptural references (e.g., item 47 regarding Joshua), and a lack of gender-neutral language (e.g., use of “man” instead of “people”). These factors suggest the instrument is best suited for populations with advanced theological or clerical education rather than the general lay public.

Reference’s

Lee, R. R. (1965). Theological belief as a dimension of personality. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

Gorsuch, R. L. & McFarland, S. G. (1972). Single vs. multiple item scales for measuring religious values. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 11, 53-64. Reprinted in H. N. Malony (Ed.), Current perspectives in the psychology of religion. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1977.

Smith, C. S. (1983). Sanctioning and causal attributions to God: A function of theological position and actors’ characteristics. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA.

Items of the RELIGIOUS BELIEF INVENTORY

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The complete 60 items of the Religious Belief Inventory (RBI) are contained within the appendix of the original doctoral dissertation by R. R. Lee (1965). The source material provides the following examples of items that proved challenging for lay participants:

• Item 4 (contains the word “fallible”).
• Item 20 (contains the phrase “natural procreation”).
• Item 43 (example of non-gender-neutral language: “People are not sinful, merely foolish”).
• Item 47 (“When Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, it did so.”).