Religious Exploration in a Modern World: The Case of Modern-Orthodox Jews in Israel

Abstract

In moderate religious communities, adolescents and young adults are increasingly exposed to modern ideas and lifestyles and thus may face a potential tension between religion and modernity. The current study investigated the exploration processes of one hundred and four Jewish Modern Orthodox higher education students in Israel. The participants responded to semi-open-ended questionnaires regarding their way of coping with religious issues. A thematic analysis identified three different religious exploration styles and one non-exploration style. The findings concerning the character of the different exploration styles raise questions concerning long-held assumptions about the nature of exploration. The findings further point to the need for new conceptualizations in the domains of exploration and identity formation, particularly, but not only, in the domain of religion.

Notes

This research was conducted as part of the doctoral work of the first author at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

¹Data from 11 participants out of these 104 provided the bases for the initial conceptualization of “radical” and “revisionist” exploration presented in Assor et al. (2005).

²Whereas this is a somewhat narrow form of exploration, as it involves information-gathering behavior for the purpose of making decisions relating to the self, it fits our definition of exploration.

³All passages and quotations are translated from the Hebrew by the authors. From this point on the participant number will appear in parenthesis at the end of each quotation.

⁴The seventh year at which the land is not to be cultivated, and produce from the land should not be eaten.

*Two other subgroups of higher education categories were eliminated because of their low presence in the sample: Open and critical yeshiva (n = 12) and not attending higher education (n = 9).