Psychology in the Phenomenology of Religion: A Critical Essay

Abstract

I would like to make a few critical remarks on a topic which, in my opinion, is seldom examined. That is the psychological implications of disciplines that border on the psychology of religion, especially in the history of religions and comparative religion. I wish to stress the importance of researchers in the field of religious studies, or Religionswissenschaft, taking into account the individual’s religious experience as it has been described and analyzed by sociologists or psychologists of religion, by systematic and practical theologians, and by philosophers of religion. I hope that my remarks on a recent multivolume encyclopedia (Eliade, 1987) will show why I am doing this. But first, a general observation.KeywordsPsychological TheoryReligious TraditionReligious ExperiencePsychological ExplanationSpirit PossessionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.