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Leak and Fish (1999) provided initial evidence for the validity of the Religious Maturity Scale - Version 2 (RM-2). The scale was developed to assess six areas of religious maturity specified by Allport (1950). Consequently, information concerning the number and nature of factors underlying responses to the scale is important. The analysis revealed four factors corresponding to the dynamic, differentiated, comprehensive, and heuristic aspects of religious maturity. The results have implications for the future development of specific subscales as well as for the value of Allport's theory of religious maturity.
The concept of religious maturity, despite the difficulties inherent in its conceptualization and measurement, holds theoretical and practical appeal for a wide variety of individuals, including theologians, developmental and personality psychologists, counselors, and educators. The most influential theorist of religious maturity is Gordon Allport. Allport's (1950) theory specified six components that defined the mature religious sentiment: (a) the strength of the religious motivation and commitment (i.e., religion as a dynamic master-motive that directs one's life), (b) differentiation and complexity of thought with respect to religious-existential issues, (c) comprehensiveness (it provides meaning to life and promotes tolerance of alternative viewpoints), (d) heuristic quality (humility and a readiness to doubt), (e) directiveness (it has moral consequences), and (f) an integral nature. Allport devoted special attention to the first four components listed above (see Allport [ch. 3] for a detailed presentation of these dimensions).
Allport and his students later developed the Intrinsic Religiosity Scale (IR) as a measure of religious maturity (Allport & Ross, 1967). Despite its popularity, the IR scale has been severely criticized on empirical and conceptual grounds (Altemeyer, 1996; Batson, Schoenrade, & Ventis, 1993; Kirkpatrick & Hood, 1990). Specifically, the IR scale assesses only a few aspects of maturity, while jettisoning the integral, differentiated, and heuristic components. It seems that Allport excised too much in his efforts to operationalize a meaningful but complex construct, and, as a consequence, several facets of religious maturity were sacrificed in the development of the IR scale.
In response to this problem, Leak and Fish (1999) developed and validated a 59-item scale to measure the six facets of religious maturity listed above. The evidence for the construct validity of their scale is impressive to date, but a need still...