Religion and well-being in a church without a creed

Abstract

This study of religion and well-being questions whether adherents of a religion without a specific creed may still derive well-being from their religious experience as do members of more orthodox religious institutions. Survey data from a Unitarian Universalist congregation were analyzed to test whether the relationship between religion and individual well-being in a non-Christian, non-creedal religious institution is similar to that observed in mainstream Christian denominations. Hierarchical linear regression analysis indicates that spirituality, social support, and the centrality of Unitarian Universalism (UU) to personal identity predict the amount of strength and comfort the respondents derived from religion, after controlling for demographic characteristics. Interaction effects between education and theological coherence and between gender and spirituality were also found. These results support the hypothesis that members of non-doctrinal religious groups benefit from religion by means of similar processes as members of religious groups that espouse more orthodox belief with one exception: theological ‘incoherence’ is actually more beneficial to well-being of the highly educated in this context than is theological coherence.