Existential questing: Investigating the function of religious exploration, uncertainty, and growth motivation in managing existential anxiety

The current review explores the intersection between religious quest orientation (valuing doubts, exploration, and growth) and our existential needs. There are a number of existential concerns that motivate thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. These concerns are generally troubling, causing us to defend against reminders of our existential nature by using cultural worldview defenses. As a defense, religion both functions generally as a worldview and holds sacred components that better shield against existential angst in a way that no other worldview can accomplish. Religious quest, however, is a religious orientation that values uncertainty and doubts, exploration, and growth. These factors augment religion’s inherent shielding effect. In some cases, questing increases existential concerns (e.g. death, meaning). In other cases, questing better protects individuals from existential concerns (e.g. existential isolation). Overall, religious belief is not universal in its existential shielding abilities but instead is modified by individual differences, making it especially well suited for some needs, but less so for others.