RELIGION AND THE SELF AS TEXT - TOWARD A CHRISTIAN TRANSLATION OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION

Difficulties in specifying the relationship between religious belief a nd self-actualization were presumed to reflect language differences in humanistic and religious articulations of selfhood. Christian version s of humanistic statements of self-actualization were administered to Christians, and a large number of successful translations were identif ied according to an empirical criterion. These items were combined int o Christian self-actualization scales, and these scales displayed reli able and sometimes moderately strong correlations with religious orien tation and healthy self-functioning. These data revealed how a Christi an form of self-actualization might be articulated. More generally, th ey illustrated how empirical examinations of translation schemes might serve as a useful methodology for pursuing the goat of integration an d for studying relationships between psychology and religion.