Beyond Religious Affiliations: Profiles of Religiosity and Institutional Belonging in Contemporary Argentina

Abstract

Quantitative studies on religion are usually characterized by drawing a map of religiosity in a given society, based on socio-demographic variables and, fundamentally, contemplating religious affiliation. In this way, the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic and evangelical populations are analyzed, as well as those of the population with no institutional religious affiliations.In this paper, we propose to start from the dissimilar religious intensities and the varied configuration of the link with the religious institution evidenced by individuals in Argentina to form four strata, regardless of religious affiliations. From the multivariate model of multiple correspondences on the dataset of Mallimaci, Esquivel, Giménez Béliveau & Irrazábal (2019) Second National Survey on Religious Beliefs and Attitudes in Argentina; we have developed four profiles of religiosity —a committed core, practitioners, peripheral participants and non-participants— that cross Christian religious denominations.Characterizing and analyzing the four profiles both in terms of religious beliefs and attitudes and in relation to a range of issues on the public agenda (abortion, sex education, gender, religious education in public schools, immigration and social assistance policies), will allow us to identify emerging features that define the socio-cultural patterns present in Argentine society today.