“Different is the Faith of a Child, Different is the Faith of an Adult, I Just Managed to Get This Faith, My Own” - Qualitative Study on the Concept of Religious Deidentification. Conclusions from the Analysis of a Polish Sample

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2026

Publication Source

International Journal for the Psychology of Religion

Volume Number

36

Issue Number

1

First Page

6

Last Page

31

ISSN

10508619

E-ISSN

15327582

Abstract

The concept of religious deidentification proposed by Van Tongeren and De Wall (2023) provides a new theoretical framework for studying the phenomenon of religious change and faith abandonment. The present study undertook an empirical verification of this theory in a qualitative research model. We analyzed 97 monologues of Poles regarding the process of religious deidentification. The results confirmed the presence of the four dimensions postulated in the theory: disbelief, disengagement, discontinuance, and disaffiliation. Traces of previous religious identification, understood as religious residue, were also confirmed in the statements of the participants. In addition, a new dimension of deidentification was found. It was called “reversed order of creation” and can be understood as the abandonment of dependence on God and positioning themselves in a role previously attributed to God. Deidentification usually took place during adolescence and early adulthood. It involved decisions made in the process of suffering, as well as moral decisions and reflections on the human role in relation to transcendence.

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