Christianity and the new construct of religious self-esteem

Abstract

Although self-esteem is a widely researched construct in psychology and has been found to be closely associated with wellbeing, its relationship with religion is unclear. In view of the inconsistent pattern of the relationship between religion and self-esteem in the extant literature, this paper proposes a new construct, namely, religious self-esteem, in terms of the religion of Christianity. This construct comprises three dimensions—cognition, relationship with God, and meaning in life—to bridge the gap between Christianity, self-esteem, and wellbeing. The theoretical and practical significance of this new construct is also discussed.