Exploration of Christian Faith Religiosity in Indonesia

Religious studies in Indonesia mostly examined the relationship between religiosity and student psychosocial variables, such as emotional regulation, self-concept, and well-being in educational settings, but those studies mostly used religious construct from the West while religious construct based on Indonesia seemed to get less attention. Religiosity measurement in Indonesia in the past was an adaptation of religiosity scales developed in Western cultures. Furthermore, the adaptation process was limited by the homogeneity of subject religious belief, which mainly consisted of the Muslim sample. This study aims to explore religiosity within Christians by incorporating local religious leader perspectives on the meaning and expression of religiosity to develop religiosity construct based upon Indonesian context. The data were gathered from focused group discussions consisting of the local representatives of Christian denomination leaders and were analyzed using a thematic analysis. Three themes identified during the discussion were religion as self-identity, comprehensive measurement, and local incorporation. Further studies could include these themes to measure religiosity.