Editing Religiosity (section)

{{short description|Degree of religious commitment or involvement}}
{{Lead too short|date=October 2020}}
[[File:Importance of Religion in the World (Gallup Poll 2008-2009).svg|thumb|550px|Results of a 2008/2009 Gallup poll on whether respondents said that religion was "important in [their] daily life."<ref name=gallup-religiosity-poor-nations>{{cite web|last1=Crabtree|first1=Steve|title=Religiosity Highest in World's Poorest Nations|date=31 August 2010 |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/142727/religiosity-highest-world-poorest-nations.aspx|publisher=Gallup|access-date=27 May 2015}} (in which numbers have been rounded)</ref><ref name="Gallup2">[https://worldview.gallup.com/default.aspx GALLUP WorldView] - data accessed on 17 January 2009</ref>
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The ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' defines '''religiosity''' as: "Religiousness; religious feeling or belief. [...] Affected or excessive religiousness".<ref>{{oed | religiosity}}. The earliest recorded usage of the former meaning is from 1382 [[Wycliffe's Bible]], and of the latter is from 1799 by [[William Taylor (man of letters)|William Taylor]] quoted in John Warden Robberds' 1843 Memoir.</ref> Different scholars have seen this concept as broadly about [[religious orientation]]s and degrees of involvement or commitment.<ref name="Holdcroft" /> The contrast between "religious" and "{{linktext|religiose}}" (superficially religious)  and the concept of "strengthening" [[faith]]<ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 |last1                = Maclaren
 |first1               = Alexander
 |author-link1         = Alexander Maclaren
 |editor-last1         = Nicoll
 |editor-first1        = William Robertson
 |editor-link1         = William Robertson Nicoll
 |year                 = 1887
 |chapter              = Conciliatory and Hortatory Transition to Polemics
 |title                = The Expositor's Bible
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=zwVFAQAAMAAJ
 |volume               = 42: Colossians and Philemon
 |publication-place    = London
 |publisher            = Hodder and Stoughton
 |page                 = 182
 |access-date          = 11 July 2024
 |quote                = The faith which is already the firmest, and by its firmness may gladden an Apostle, is still capable of and needs strengthening.
}}
</ref>
suggest differences in the intensity of religiosity.

Scholars attempt to measure religiosity at the levels of individuals or groups, but differ as to what [[behaviors]] constitute religiosity.<ref name="Holdcroft">{{cite journal |last1= Holdcroft|first1=Barbara|title= What is Religiosity? |journal= Catholic Education: A Journal of Inquiry and Practice|date= September 2006|volume= 10|issue= 1|pages=89–103}}</ref> [[Sociology of religion|Sociologists of religion]] have observed that an individual's experience, [[belief]]s, [[Belongingness|sense of belonging]], and general behavior often are not congruent with their religious behavior, since there is much diversity in how one can be religious or not.<ref name="chaves" /> Problems arise in measuring religiosity. For instance, measures of variables such as [[church attendance]] produce different results when different methods are used, such as traditional [[Survey (human research)|survey]]s as opposed to [[time-use survey]]s.<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last1=Rossi |first1=Maurizio
 |last2=Scappini |first2=Ettore
 |title=Church Attendance, Problems of Measurement, and Interpreting Indicators: A Study of Religious Practice in the United States, 1975-2010
 |journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
 |date=June 2014 |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=249–267
 |doi=10.1111/jssr.12115 |issn=0021-8294
|doi-access=free }}
</ref>