Theoretical, Empirical, and Potential Ideological Dimensions of Using Western Conceptualizations to Measure Muslim Religious Commitments

One approach to promoting a Muslim psychology of religion involves a dialogical model of research. This model would bring Western social scientific understandings of religion and mental health into dialogue with Muslim perspectives. Concerns about bias in applying Western assumptions and methods to Muslim religiousness could be addressed through an empirical sensitivity to ideological factors. Support for this model may appear in the effort of Western psychologists to describe intrinsic, extrinsic, and quest religious motivations. These orientations roughly parallel, respectively, the experiential, utilitarian, and Gnostic types of Muslim religiousness described by the Iranian philosopher A. K. Soroush (2003) Soroush, A. K. 2003. Sonate va secularism [Tradition and secularism], Tehran, Iran: Serate. [Google Scholar]. Studies using Muslim samples in Iran and Pakistan have confirmed the plausibility of this parallel and therefore the potential of the dialogical model.