Many religions refute the psychological sense of self in their attempt to eradicate secular conditioning and discourage individuality. This is especially true within Conservative Protestant Christianity, where modern ideals of selfhood seek to serve the individual rather than God. Both biological and sociological factors serve to influence ideals of self-identity within Conservative Protestant Christianity and modern psychological theory, yet there is evidence of reduced feelings of self-worth associated with Conservative Protestant Christianity’s influence over an individual’s sense of personal mastery and self-esteem, as dictated by Divine Intervention.

Through exploration of the factors that help shape an individual’s identity, and by applying methods of modern psychological and Conservative Protestant Christian thought, this research aims to establish support for the concept that Divine Intervention, especially in association with ideals of Fundamentalist Christianity, promotes loss of the personal sense of identity and lends to a reduced level of happiness amongst some Conservative Protestant Christians.

To understand the impact that Divine Intervention has on the ideal of self amongst Conservative Protestant Christians, consideration must be given to an individual’s “relations with a divine being, as well as their perceptions of the power and influence of an omnipotent deity”, as the relationship that they maintain with that deity directly dictates the stronghold that it possesses over their sense of identity and self-concept (Schieman et al. 165). Compiled research on this subject has yielded support for the concept that “higher levels of perceived divine control”, especially within Conservative Protestant Christian thought, “may correspond to the sense that events and outcomes are beyond one’s own personal control”, and therefore are not representative of any individual influence (Schieman et al. 170).

In exploring the science behind religious thought, research compiled by Dominiek Coates reports that “…some individuals are not reflexively guided by a personal self, but continue to acquire and maintain self-stability by anchoring themselves to stable others, such as institutions, traditions, or social groups” (Coates 794). Religious groups, like those founded in Conservative Protestant Christianity, which maintain fundamentalist views that hold fast to ideals of Divine Intervention and the self in the image of God, serve as these anchors. By connecting oneself to a community, or rather congregation, that supports the idea of surrendering all concepts of self-identity and self-will to God, the individual is relieved of existential anxiety through the concept that God is in control.

In direct opposition of ideals of Divine Intervention in the concept of selfhood stand modern psychological theories that establish criteria for self-identity based on biological, rather than theological, factors. Joseph LeDoux, from the Center for Neural Science at NYU, states that “In modern psychology the notion of the self is closely tied in with consciousness, in the sense of being self-aware, possessing agency or conscious control, having self-knowledge, a self-concept and self-esteem, of being self-critical, of feeling self-important, and striving towards self-actualization” (LeDoux 296). This idea is further supported in Jerome Kagan’s essay, The Emergence of Self, where he explains that “The speculation that self-awareness is a consequence of a cumulative…history of material experiences and objects and people…owes…to the fact that most Western scholars have been reluctant to posit discrete endogenous mechanisms…which might be responsible for the emergence of new behaviors” (Kagan 378). He goes on to suppose that this is due to the fact that “physiologists and psychologists have wanted to believe that external events, potentially quantifiable, are the primary causes of action”, as this supports the concept that the brain synapses that occur, and serve to create memories, are “more in accord with an epistemology of mechanism and a philosophy of logical positivism than with a presupposition that awards potency to invisible entities that seem to have direction and structure from the beginning”, as in the case of the omnipotent God that Conservative Protestant Christianity is founded upon (Kagan 378).

Upon acceptance of God as the fixed, eternal being that serves as both creator and regulator of life, the sense of self-identity that one possesses, from a psychological standpoint, is effectively replaced with the assumed image of God. As read in Genesis, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” …So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him…” (New International Version, Gen. 1.26-27). This very statement serves as the backbone for structuring identity within the fundamentalist confines of Conservative Protestant Christianity. In creating man in his own likeness, God established total dominance over him, and effectively removed all concept of selfhood. In addition to surrendered personal identity, Divine Intervention seeks to eradicate all notions of self-importance and existential concern amongst Conservative Protestant Christians.

This ideal is further explored in The Sense of Divine Control and the Self-Concept, which provides detailed findings on the effects of perceived Divine Intervention on the individual sense of self. In this research, it was reported that, for some, “…viewing God as in control of events and experiences in one’s life may be the equivalent of ceding personal control to Him”, which supported the hypothesis that “…higher levels of divine control are associated with lower levels of self-esteem” (Schieman et al. 188). When an individual feels as though they have little personal effect on their own life, and on the state of society as a whole, there is a correlated sense of reduced self-worth and limited personal mastery.

If, indeed, it is in our ability to conceive our own “agency and conscious control” that signifies our identity, as suggested by LeDoux, then the concept that the continued experiences that arise from our state of conscious control consistently impact and influence our sense of self is supported (LeDoux 296). While Conservative Protestant Christianity seeks to eradicate the secular conditioning that supports notions of individuality in defiance of its truth, that man is made in the image of God and therefore has no separate self, the theories surrounding selfhood in modern psychology function to bolster self-identity, by providing scientific evidence that details the biological processes that stimulate brain synapses and record experiences which directly shape an individual’s sense of self.

When it comes to ideals surrounding identity and selfhood in modern science, there is widespread support for psychological reasoning that suggests that the self is “an active agent in the control of mental states and behavior” (LeDoux 296). Broken down even further, the self essentially exists as a system of monitoring and facilitating the biological processes involved in the formation of memories. It is through study of this mechanism that scientists and researchers are able to “understand how the self is established and maintained in the brain” (LeDoux 298).

If Divine Intervention and the idea that Conservative Protestant Christians have no perceptions of self-identity serve “as a crutch, especially when they yearn for relief from miserable conditions”, then the effects of resigning one’s identity and personal mastery that result, hypothesized as “relinquished control” in The Sense of Divine Control and the Self-Concept, “expose[s] individuals to more frequent feelings of guilt, shame, and self-doubt” and “has the potential to diminish self-esteem” (Schieman et al. 171).

Dominiek Coates supports this concept in his study, The Effect of New Religious Movement Affiliation and Disaffiliation on Reflexivity and Sense of Self, by providing detailed testimonies from individuals who had surrendered their identities to the fundamentalist ideals founded in Conservative Protestant Christianity, only to leave such organizations and find themselves left with “an “unbearable identity void” and “an intense sense of insecurity and anxiety” (Coates 798). Without Divine Intervention, the choices an individual must face and make prove daunting to the newly isolated person, as they lack the established understanding of personal mastery and self-control necessary “for managing today’s unstable social environments” (Coates 794).

This lack of understanding and ability serves to further foster feelings of unworthiness, guilt, and embarrassment, amongst some Conservative Protestant Christians. In a study published in the Journal of Mental Health Counseling, it was reported by one of the women interviewed that, “If you don’t fit the church’s mold of the perfect person…they don’t want to have anything to do with you” (Wagner and Rehfuss 177). The feelings of guilt that correlated with her sense of unworthiness, as dictated by her strict, conservative Christian upbringing, had a profound effect on the interviewee’s ideals of self-worth and overall happiness.

In modern psychological theory, societal norms serve as the moral guidelines for measuring self-control, and help to establish the parameters associated with self-awareness and the perception of individual influence on society. Jerome Kagan further explores the impact of societal norms in his essay The Emergence of the Self, finding that at “Around 17 to 20 months of age, children display an obvious concern with a special class of events and actions whose attributes deviate from what adults regard as normative” (Das and Nairn 365). This observed behavior supports the idea that our self-identity is measured by pre-established, societal norms that are present at birth.

In addition to accepted ideals of normalcy in society, one’s position within the social strata, as result of economic and environmental influence, also functions to establish an individual’s sense of self. In consideration of economic status, and its ability or inability to support opportunities in education and moral development, much weight must be placed on its effective involvement in the establishment of identity. When the basic needs of an individual are met, and their status in society is deemed elevated enough to validate feelings of self-worth, there is little need for relief by Divine Intervention. Further support for this is established in The Sense of Divine Control and the Self-Concept, as it reports that “Scholars of religion have long asserted that socially and economically disadvantaged members of society benefit the most from religious beliefs and practices” finding that “religiosity offsets the psychological impact of social and economic disadvantages” (Schieman et al. 174).

As is typical of most social and cultural groups, differentiations in race and gender notably add to and influence the impact that Conservative Protestant Christianity might have on an individual’s sense of self. Research reported in The Sense of Divine Control and the Self-Concept concludes that, “Specifically, there is a negative association between perceived divine control and mastery among White respondents and a slightly positive association among Blacks”, which is reduced further to remark that “the association between perceived divine control and self-esteem is negative among White men only” (Schieman et al. 180, 185).

Although “higher levels of perceived divine control are associated with lower levels of self-esteem among White men—the most advantaged population subgroup…”, as result of relinquished control that yields “diminished self-worth”, by contrast, increased Divine Intervention led to “higher levels of self-esteem among black women—the least advantaged group”, due to the “self-validation and affirmation” of the “social and economic disadvantages” associated with Black women (Schieman et al. 188-189). As members of a habitually disparaged and oppressed community, research finds that “Blacks may experience the sense of divine control differently than Whites because they tend to perceive God’s support and guidance as an indispensable part of empowerment” (Schieman et al. 189). Due to this divergent perception of intervention, the levels of self-esteem and personal mastery within Black Conservative Protestant Christians are less negatively affected.

While Divine Intervention may be cause for decreased feelings of self-worth among white men, one study, which explores the impacts that conservative Christianity has on the rearing of children, finds that many white women also experience resigned regulation over their lives and reduced self-esteem as result of their religiosity. Findings from this study state, “…the women perceived that their Christian upbringing was connected to past feelings of unworthiness”, and all three women reported that they “…felt that religion was overemphasized and that the overall atmosphere was unhealthy” (Wagner and Rehfuss 176-177). In accordance with the finding that “Traditionally conservative denominations may stress the implications of sin and divine retaliation”, Joseph LeDoux asserts that “If a significant proportion of the early emotional experiences one has are due to activation of the fear system rather than positive systems, then the characteristic personality that begins to build…is one drenched in negativity and hopelessness rather than in affection and optimism” (Schieman et al. 171, LeDoux 302). In such a manner, Conservative Protestant Christianity serves to negatively impact the self-esteem, and overall happiness levels, of many of its followers, despite gender differences.

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, where the founding concepts of life structure in Christianity are drawn, it is stated that man is created in the image of God, a concept that directly employs God as both the identity and master controller of man. Further clarification on this matter, as detailed in 1 Corinthians, explains that while man “is the image and glory of God”, “the woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man” (New International Version, 1 Cor. 11:7-9). With consideration of this, in congruence with research that links higher levels of Divine Intervention with lower levels of self-esteem in white men only, the correlation between religiosity and the “relinquished and diminished self-worth hypotheses” explored in The Sense of Divine Control and the Self-Concept serves to support ideals of a decreased sense of self among both white men and women, with or without the presence of Divine Intervention or consideration of the self as made in the image of God (Schieman et al. 175).

In addition to the impacts that race and gender maintain over the sense of self in Conservative Protestant Christian thought, evidence suggests that limited opportunities of education and employment, especially among women, also influences selfhood and identity. Aniruddha Das and Stephanie Nairn report, from their research on Conservative Christianity, Partnership, Hormones, and Sex in Late Life, that “married evangelical women reported significantly less current employment, relative to both women in other religions and to their male counterparts” and found that “among married evangelicals…women were strikingly less likely than men to have had any college education” (Das and Nairn 8). This lack of employment and education facilitates a sense of alienation from society, and creates a dependency on others for understanding.

In addition to a lack of higher education amongst Conservative Protestant Christian women, negative, and oftentimes absent, sexual education fosters a “naivete” that causes “personal confusion and anxiety about…sexuality” (Wagner and Rehfuss 178). When confronted with sexuality in adulthood, many conservative Christians reported feelings of embarrassment and shame. This was due to an inherent lack of knowledge and understanding, and to harboring a conditioned negative response to sex. In summary, reduced sexual education among some Conservative Protestant Christians effects the same decrease in self-worth and personal mastery as the concept of Divine Intervention does, by cultivating feelings of guilt and embarrassment.

There is substantial evidence that supports the ideal that by maintaining fundamentalist views of selfhood, some Conservative Protestant Christians experience reduced levels of self-worth and personal mastery. Divine Intervention, and the general ceding of control and self-interest to God, in combination with an array of biological and sociological factors, effectively results in lower levels of self-esteem and happiness among many Conservative Protestant Christians.

Works Cited

Barker, Kenneth L., and Donald W. Burdick. The NIV Study Bible. 10th ed., Grand Rapids, Mi,   Zondervan Publishing House, 1995. Print.

Brinkman, Klaus. “Consciousness, Self-Consciousness, and the Modern Self.” History of the Human Sciences, vol. 18, no. 4, 2005, pp. 27-48. Print.

Coates, Dominiek. “The Effect of New Religious Movement Affiliation and Disaffiliation on Reflexivity and Sense of Self.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 52, no. 4, 2013, pp. 793-809. Print.

Das, Aniruddha, and Stephanie Nairn. “Conservative Christianity, Partnership, Hormones, and Sex in Late Life.” Archives of Sexual Behavior, vol. 43, no. 7, 2014, pp. 1403-15. Print.

Kagan, Jerome. “The Emergence of Self.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol. 23, no. 4, 1982, pp. 363-381. Print.

LeDoux, Joseph. “The Self: Clues from the Brain.” Annals of the New York Academy of  Sciences, vol. 1001, no. 1, 2003, pp. 295-304. Print.

Schieman, Scott, Tetyana Pudrovska, and Melissa Milkie. “The Sense of Divine Control and the Self-Concept.” Research on Aging, vol. 27, no. 2, 2005, pp. 165-196. Print.

Wagner, Joyce, and Mark Rehfuss. “Self-injury, Sexual Self-Concept, and a Conservative Christian Upbringing: An Exploratory Study of Three Young Women’s Perspectives.”          Journal of Mental Health Counseling, vol. 30, no. 2, 2008. Print.