Measuring religion and spirituality: Where are we and where are we going?

While the measurement of religion and spirituality has made significant pro gress in the past few decades, we have seen increasing criticism of the dom inant paradigm in the psychology of religion-intrinsic and extrinsic religi ousness. A variety of new measures have been developed, notwithstanding Gor such's (1984) admonition to the contrary. Religion and its post-modern offs pring (spirituality) has become intensely personal, and the direction of th e new measures in the field reflect this shift. Furthermore, several comple xities of measuring this domain remain unresolved, such as the lack of prec ision in definitions, illusory spiritual health, ceiling effects, social de sirability, and bias. This article discusses these complexities, provides a critical review of two widely used instruments, and reviews four newer ins truments with promising theoretical perspectives and psychometric propertie s.