In a BYU Study, BYU Communications Professors Explore the Reasons People Return to Religion
Feeling close to God and reconnecting with Him — especially through prayer — restores people’s faith. A new study from Brigham Young University published in Pastoral Psychology found out that people returned to faith when they experienced a reconnection in their relationship to God.
Jessica Zurcher, an associate professor in BYU’s School of Communications and the study’s co-author, explained that nearly 80% of those in the study said they still had not resolved some of the questions or concerns they had — “but their personal connection with God trumped their disbelief.”
Zurcher said the researchers decided to do the study when they noticed a significant gap in the literature about why people decide to return to religion.
“There is a lot of research out there on faith, the triggering events for a faith crisis, why people decide to leave religion, topics that push people away, the process of a faith crisis, etc., but there’s not much on faith restoration,” Zurcher said.
“To our knowledge, ours is the first study to really explore this aspect of a faith crisis, and we felt this is an essential piece in understanding the faith crisis journey.”
Read the full Church News article by Mary Richards here.