Translating Symbolism: An Epistemological Grounding for the Interplay Between Religion and Politics in Public Opinion Research.

Public opinion polls and survey research have yielded a wealth of data on religion and politics in the last few decades, but the reason for the connection between religious beliefs and political commitments remains underexplored. Political scientists know that belief in doctrines such as Biblical literalism, the virgin birth, the Resurrection, Satan, and Hell are strong proxies for personal piety, and strong predictors of Republican partisan identification. Nevertheless, public opinion researchers have largely demurred from a deeper examination of the symbolic and imaginative narratives in which religious adherents situate these beliefs. This paper argues against mono-causal interpretations of the relationship between religion and politics, specifically against scholarship that assumes religion as exogeneous to political commitments. Rather, this paper provides an epistemological grounding in interpretivism for the idea that religious beliefs and political opinions are endogeneous. Religion and politics are part of a larger cultural system of narratives, mutually shaping and reinforcing one another in individuals' imaginations. This paper offers a hermeneutic framework for the study of religion and politics in public opinion, illustrated by two vignettes of religion and politics research: one that neglects the interpretive puzzle, and one that attends to the underlying symbolic structure of beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]