Religious identity is not a fixed psychological attribute but a dynamic social accomplishment, continuously produced and reproduced through symbol-laden interaction. Grounded in the theoretical tradition of symbolic interactionism-most prominently the contributions of George Herbert Mead (1934), Herbert Blumer (1969), and Erving Goffman (1959)-this study investigates how individuals negotiate, sustain, and revise their religious selfhood through communal rituals, sacred language, and everyday social encounters. Employing a qualitative secondary data analysis design, the study draws on large-scale religious surveys (Pew Research Center, General Social Survey, World Values Survey) and peer-reviewed ethnographic literature spanning four religious traditions-Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. Thematic content analysis of these sources identified three consistent predictors of religious identity strength: ritual participation, community interaction quality, and symbolic literacy. Five core themes emerged: ritual embodiment, communal validation, sacred text interpretation, spatial sacredness, and life-transition marking. Findings support a processual, co-constructed model of religious identity in which meaning does not reside in symbols per se but emerges from the intersubjective negotiations that symbols enable. Theoretical and applied implications for interreligious understanding, pastoral care, and sociological inquiry are discussed.
Brianson Shyodhi Lepcha (Mon,) studied this question.