a psychologist, it is obvious that religious belief, behavior, emotions, and cognitions largely operate by the same processes as any other beliefs, behav- ior, emotions, and cognitions. This should neither surprise nor threaten anyone, including the strict religious believer, because they are standard psychological processes. Also, however, there are substantive aspects of specific religions not found elsewhere (Pargament, 2002), for example, the idea that a God exists who is simultaneously omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, while bad things happen in the world. This element of substance nevertheless has its effects by means of the same meaning system processes as any other item of information. Therefore, like anything else, religions are unique in particular ways while they share many psychologi- cal features in common and operate by the same meaning system processes that all human behavior does.
in combination with the model of religious meaning systems gives you the most effective way I know of for how to approach looking at, and thinking about, this vast and important human phenomenon called religiousness.
This book encourages you to look at religion from multiple disciplines to have a fuller grasp of it. The other perspectives will enrich the one you gain from this book—the perspective of psychology.
TAKE- HOME MESSAGES h
h Religions are complex and diverse, and are found in every culture.
The myriad manifestations of religiousness catalog all varieties of behaviors, beliefs, rules and freedoms, postulates of the nature of what is unseen, emotional expressions, and acts of violence as well as of loving care.
h
h Religiousness can be conceptualized at both cultural and personal levels, and as based on the substance or content of what is believed or as a matter of the functions it serves in the person or culture.
h
h Efforts to define religion in the abstract have not produced consensus.
Although some psychologists have offered definitions of religion, a psychological approach is not concerned with essentialist definitions, whether or not based on notions of “the sacred,” and instead
focuses on conducting good scientific research out of which better conceptualizations of religion can emerge.
h
h Dimensions of religiousness include the content of what is believed, practices performed as religious ritual or as other prescribed behaviors, knowledge about the origins and intellectual issues involved in the religion, feelings manifest as part of the religion as such or as an effect of its role elsewhere in life, and behavioral consequences of one’s religiousness in ordinary “nonreligious” life.
h
h The psychological roots of religiousness are multiple and exist at all levels of analysis ranging from the neurological to the social and cultural. Fully understanding them requires knowledge of the contribution of processes at each level, and knowledge of their interactions.
h
h Different views exist on the degree to which religion is psychologically unique. The most “non- unique” view (Box 1.1, number 1) is that religiousness is mediated by the same general psychological processes as any other behavior. The most “unique” view (number 4) is that certain processes are at work in religiousness that are found nowhere else.
Between these two extremes is number 2, which proposes that religion is mediated by the same processes as any other behavior but that certain phenomena “stand out” more in religion than elsewhere. View
number 3 proposes that religious phenomena contain relationships unique among general psychological variables and processes, and thus that the basic factors operating to produce religious behavior are the same for any behavior, but that in religion they work to produce behavior and experience found only in religion.
FURTHER RE ADING
Basic Concepts, Themes, and Scope of the Psychology of Religion
Beit- Hallahmi, B. (2014). Psychological perspectives on religion and religiosity.
London: Routledge.
Hood, R. W., Jr., Hill, P. C., & Spilka, B. (2009). The psychology of religion: An empirical approach (4th ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Religiousness and Spirituality
Oman, D. (2013). Defining religion and spirituality. In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L.
Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (2nd ed., pp. 23–47). New York: Guilford Press.
Streib, H., & Hood, R. W., Jr. (Eds.). (2016). Semantics and psychology of spiritu- ality: A cross- cultural analysis. Heidelberg: Springer.
Zinnbauer, B. J., & Pargament, K. I. (2005). Religiousness and spirituality. In R. F.
Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 21–42). New York: Guilford Press.
Fundamentals of Theory and Research in the Psychology of Religion
Paloutzian, R. F., & Park, C. L. (2005). Integrative themes in the current science of the psychology of religion. In R. F. Paloutzian & C. L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (pp. 3–20). New York: Guilford Press.
Paloutzian, R. F., & Park, C. L. (2013b). Recent progress and core issues in the science of the psychology of religion and spirituality. In R. F. Paloutzian & C.
L. Park (Eds.), Handbook of the psychology of religion and spirituality (2nd ed., pp. 3–22). New York: Guilford Press.
Paloutzian, R. F., & Park, C. L. (2014). Religiousness and spirituality: The psychol- ogy of multilevel meaning- making behavior. Religion, Brain and Behavior, 5(2), 166–178.
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Psychology of Religion at the Beginning of Psychology The Exit and Reemergence of the Psychology of Religion Philosophy of Science and Modern Psychology of Religion
Religion, Spirituality, and Meaning Making Meaning Making and Remaking
Take-Home Messages Further Reading
t
he psychology of religion is old and new. It was a part of psychology when it began as a science. Then it went into hiding for approximately 40 years, reemerged, and became a complete subdiscipline with research under way across the board in general psychological areas. It followed a non- uniform intellectual path. Why? And what insights do we gain by appropriating what was learned along that path? Let us follow the intel- lectual steps from the very beginning of the psychology of religion (in spir- itism, the esoteric, telepathy, and the search for communication with the spirits of the dead) to today—what is unfolding now— slightly more than 100 years later. In this journey, we step through important, fundamental rules for how to think psychologically about religiousness and spirituality.So equipped, you can handle everything else in this book. Questions to be asked include the following:
Intellectual Journey
to the Psychology of Religion
1. Out of what intellectual mud did the psychology of religion evolve?
And important for now, what issues did the early researchers solve, if any? Or, on the other hand, did they leave unfinished business that has come back to haunt us in disguise?
2. Why did the psychology of religion cease to exist for about 40 years?
And on what basis are we now on intellectually sound ground for doing psychological research?
3. What philosophy of science underpinnings support modern psy- chology of religion and make it properly a subdiscipline of psychol- ogy as well as an important contributor to religious studies? Where does the psychology of religion fit in the so- called dialogue between science and religion?
4. How are we advised to think psychologically, and effectively, about religion and spirituality now that we are in the third millennium
C.E.?