Personal Ideology: The Intersection of Personality and Religious Beliefs

Individual religious beliefs are conceptualized as a component of personal ideology,which is one’s value‐laden philosophy of how life should be lived and of what forces impact human living. Extending Silvan Tomkins’ (1911–1991) writings concerning ideology polarity and his script theory of personality, I suggest that personal ideology theory may be employed to elucidate the content, structure, and development of religious beliefs. This theory examines religiousness as a biologically motivated interpretive structure that is situated within the sociohistorical, age‐relevant, and idiosyncratic conditions of the ontogenetic matrix.