Based on a national survey of U.S. adults conducted six weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, this article investigates how crisis affects religious faith. Almost no Americans reported losing or a weakening of faith in response to the pandemic at this time. By contrast, nearly one-third of believers indicated that the coronavirus outbreak had strengthened their faith. We theoretically develop and empirically test three religious factors—theodicy, practices, and tradition—to explain variation in the strengthening effect of the COVID-19 pandemic among believers. Results from statistical models show that two theodicic interpretations—believing that God: is using the pandemic as a way to tell humanity to change; and will personally protect you from the virus—significantly increased believers’ reports of faith strengthening, controlling for other factors. We also found that Black Protestants were more likely to report these interpretations, which in turn strengthened their faith in response to the pandemic.

中文翻译：

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神学与危机：解释美国信徒对 COVID-19 大流行的信仰反应的变化

根据在 COVID-19 大流行六周后对美国成年人进行的一项全国调查，本文调查了危机如何影响宗教信仰。目前几乎没有美国人报告说对这一流行病的反应失去或削弱了信心。相比之下，近三分之一的信徒表示，冠状病毒的爆发增强了他们的信仰。我们从理论上开发和实证测试了三个宗教因素——神学、实践和传统——以解释 COVID-19 大流行在信徒中的强化效应的变化。统计模型的结果表明，两种神论解释——相信上帝：正在利用大流行作为告诉人类改变的一种方式；并且会亲自保护您免受病毒侵害——在控制其他因素的情况下，信徒对信仰加强的报告显着增加。