Measuring Religion and Spirituality: Where are we and where are we Going?

While the measurement of religion and spirituality has made significant progress in the past few decades, we have seen increasing criticism of the dominant paradigm in the psychology of religion–intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness. A variety of new measures have been developed, notwithstanding Gorsuch's (1984) admonition to the contrary. Religion and its post-modern offspring (spirituality) has become intensely personal, and the direction of the new measures in the field reflect this shift. Furthermore, several complexities of measuring this domain remain unresolved, such as the lack of precision in definitions, illusory spiritual health, ceiling effects, social desirability, and bias. This article discusses these complexities, provides a critical review of two widely used instruments, and reviews four newer instruments with promising theoretical perspectives and psychometric properties.