Religion, Psychology of

Abstract

The psychology of religion was central to psychology at its inception as an independent empirical discipline. The classic American work of the early period was William James' Varieties of Religious Experience. Important contributions of a different character were made by Freud, who developed a critique of religion, and by Jung, who was more sympathetic, but with a broad view of religion and an unorthodox approach. In recent decades, the dominant approach to the psychology of religion has been empirical, and significant contributions have been made to topics such as individual differences and typologies, the relation between mental health and religion, the development of religion in children, religious and mystical experience, the neuropsychological basis of religion, the relation between self-expressed religious attitudes and religious behavior, types and processes of conversion, and charismatic phenomena such as glossolalia. The psychology of religion has often been pursued separately from the sociology of religion and also from general psychology, though efforts are now being made to remedy that. There is now also a developing body of work on the dialogue between psychology and theology that complements the psychology of religion. Finally, the psychology of religion raises fundamental issues about reductionism and the nature of explanation.