Faithful Measures : New Methods in the Measurement of Religion

**A venture into the art and science of measuring religion in everyday life** In an era of rapid technological advances, the measures and methods used to generate data about religion have undergone remarkably little change. __Faithful Measures__ pushes the study of religion into the 21st century by evaluating new and existing measures of religion and introducing new methods for tapping into religious behaviors and beliefs. This book offers a global and innovative approach, with chapters on the intersection of religion and new technology, such as smart phone apps, Google Ngrams, crowdsourcing data, and Amazon buying networks. It also shows how old methods can be improved by using new technology to create online surveys with experimental designs and by developing new ways of mining data from existing information. Chapter contributors thoroughly explain how to employ these new techniques, and offer fresh insights into understanding the complex topic of religion in modern life. Beyond its quantitative contributions, __Faithful Measures__ will be an invaluable resource for inspiring a new wave of creativity and exploration in our connected world. Cover FAITHFUL MEASURES Title Copyright Dedication CONTENTS Introduction: The Art and Science of Studying Religion SECTION I. SURVEY MEASURES OF RELIGION 1. How Religious Identity Shapes Survey Responses 2. Measurement Tools and Issues in the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality 3. Indirect and Implicit Measures of Religiosity 4. Assessing Measures of Religion and Secularity with Crowdsourced Data from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk 5. Evaluating Survey Measures Using the ARDA’s Measurement Wizard 6. Using the Total Survey Error Paradigm to Improve Cross-National Research on Religion SECTION II. BEYOND SURVEYS 7. From Documents to Data 8. Historical Research: Oneida Online 9. What Is a Religious NGO? Conceptual and Classificatory Challenges in Research on Transnational Religion 10. Reviewing Millions of Books: Charting Cultural and Religious Trends with Google’s Ngram Viewer 11. Pathways to Discovery and Enlightenment: Amazon’s Recommendation System as a Source of Information on Religious and Paranormal Consumption Patterns 12. Lessons Learned from SoulPulse, a Smartphone-Based Experience Sampling Method (S-ESM) Study of Spirituality Conclusion: Lessons Learned, Challenges Remaining About the Editors About the Contributors Index