Religionspsychologie: Ein Forschungsüberblick

Abstract

In five steps gives this research report insights to the current research fields psychology of religion with special regard to the situation in Germany. The author first analyses reasons for the lack of interest in these questions from both scientific perspectives, psychology and religious sciences/theology. In a second step he describes the sociological findings forming the context for the research in psychology of religion, mentioning especially the theories concerning individualisation and secularisation. The question which term would be the best to describe what one is talking about when trying to do research on the issues of psychology of religion is in the focus of the third part. The author shows that the concept of spirituality is the one seeming to have the most conceptual advantages than other terms like religion or religiosity. The final two steps are dealing with more specific issues, the effect of religiosity on illness and health, where a large number of researches are presented, and the upcoming school of transpersonal psychology. In all parts the Christian-theological point of view is made explicit.