Psychology and religion: mapping the relationship

Abstract

A sceptical attitude towards religion remains dominant in many circles in mainstream psychology. For example, most theories of human development omit to mention spirituality at all. With some notable exceptions, many mainstream psychologists describe themselves as materialists with a belief that there is nothing beyond our bodies and our mental worlds, however meaningful they may be to us in the here and now. However, there is one domain of psychology that has for many years accepted a more positive stance towards religion and religious experience. Many of the great movements in counselling psychology were grounded in the strong religious or spiritual faith of the leader. The discipline of counselling psychology, with its emphasis on the practitioner as scientist, has actively taken account of spiritual experience rather than religious experience as a means of promoting healing and emotional well being in clients. The present article proposes that the interface between psychology and religion has constructive implications for the therapeutic work of practitioners and that counselling psychology has been particularly influential in leading the way towards a greater interest on the part of psychologists in the nature and purpose of religious experience by focusing instead on the phenomenon of spirituality.