Meliora Symposium

Poll Offers Glimpse into Religious Beliefs

Most people in 11 major religious groups around the world associate politics—rather than religion—with trouble and unrest or with violence within their own country.

That’s one of several key findings in an initial set of results from a first-of-its-kind international survey conducted by faculty in the Department of Religion and Classics and the polling firm Zogby International.

The study’s findings were the focus of a panel discussion led by John Zogby, president and CEO of the polling company, and William Scott Green, dean of the College and the Philip S. Bernstein Professor of Jewish Studies, during Meliora Weekend.

The poll is the first collaboration between a university and a polling company to obtain quantifiable data that provide a broad, global perspective on everyday religious beliefs and practices. Interviews were completed among members of the Orthodox Church in Russia, Christians and Buddhists in South Korea, Roman Catholics and Protestants in the United States, Hindus and Muslims in India, Jews and Muslims in Israel, Muslims in Saudi Arabia, and Roman Catholics in Peru.

A team of faculty from the Department of Religion and Classics analyzed the data within their areas of expertise: Jonathan Geen (Buddhism and Hinduism); Curt Cadorette (Christianity); Green (Judaism); and Emil Homerin (Islam). Kathleen Parthé, professor of Russian and director of Russian Studies, analyzed the sections on the Orthodox Church in Russia.

For a full list of results, visit www.rochester.edu/pr/News/NewsReleases/general/zogby_poll.html.