Psychology of Religion
From the perspective of science and religion, there exist three kinds of psychology of religion. "Secular" empirical psychology (e.g., Hood) – the most widely practiced – excludes the question of the transcendent and researches religious experiences and behavior in terms of meaningful psychological concepts such as cognition, emotion, motivation, attribution, social interaction, and development. The two other kinds are more mission-oriented. "Theistic" religious psychology (e.g., Koteskey; cf. Reich) includes the transcendent and aims to understand God's creation and make people more God-like by improving their mental functioning, their moral judgment, their empathy and so forth. "Atheistic" psychology of religion (e.g. Kurtz; Vetter) aims primarily to demonstrate the illusion of a perceived transcendent and the regressive and oppressive effects of being religious.
See also FREUD, SIGMUND; PSYCHOLOGY; SELF
Bibliography
Hood, Ralph W., Jr.; Spilka, Bernard; Hunsberger, Bruce; and Gorsuch, Richard L., eds. The Psychology of Religion. An Empirical Approach. New York: Guilford, 1996.
Koteskey, Ronald L. Psychology from a Christian Perspective. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2002.
Kurtz, Paul. The Transcendental Temptation: A Critique of Religion and the Paranormal. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1991.
Reich, K. Helmut. "Scientist vs. Believer?: On Navigating Between the Scilla of Scientific Norms and the Charybdis of Personal Experience." Journal of Psychology and Theology 28, no. 3 (200): 190-200.
Vetter, George B. Magic and Religion: Their Psychological Nature, Origin, and Function. New York: Philosophical Library, 1958.
Wulff, David M. Psychology of Religion: Classic and Contemporary. New York: Wiley, 1997.
K. HELMUT REICH