PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION :

THE ROOTS :



Different sources give different dates of origin for Psychology of Religion. If we could arrive at any consenus on the matter it is that Psychology of Religion as a seperate discipline emerged from the 19th century. But according to the observation of Wulff, 'Roots of the descriptive trend in Psychology of Religion can be found in the writings that the Scriptures of the great religious traditions: in non canonical works for spiritual edification such as Augustine's confessions and the reports of the mediveal mystics and in the writings of certain philosophers and the theologians including Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), Fredrick Schleirmacher (1768-1834), Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) and Albert Ritschl (1882-1889).'

Psychology of Religion basically emerged as an outcome of N.American Empiricism. Individual cases, autobiographies, journals and answers to questionnaires served as a sources for Psychology of Religion. They are analysed and assessed trying to grasp the phenomena of religious experience. Thus the method used by Psychology of Religion is a scientific method. Some of the pioneering names in the field are Wilhelm wundt, G.S.Hall, J.H.Leuba, E.D. Starbuck, William James, Freud and Jung.



Wilhelm Wundt is a German who was the first one to establish Psychological laboratory in 1879 at Leipzig . He analysed how religion united Groups, Societies and Culture. He was always conscious about the importance or religion in human development.



In 1882 G. Stanley Hall issued Psychological reflections on moral and religious education. He also founded 'The American Journal of Psychology'. This has been the first scientific forum of Psychology of Religion .



A milestone in the field was J.H.Leuba's article named 'A Study in the Psychology of Religious Phenomena' in 1896. Another important contribution of Leuba was 'A Psychological Study of religion'.



In 1899 Starbuck gathered a mass of personal testimony from various sources concerning the phenomena of religious conversion in his 'Psychology of Religion'. Until then there were no comprehensive work in the field. Starbuck's work served as the first comprehensive hand book.



PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION IN 20th CENTURY:



William James was another great figure in the discipline. He stressed that human nature cannot be understood unless the religious element is taken into consideration.. He wrote a classic on the discipline, ' Varieties of Religious Expeiences' in 1902. This work served as model and it still serves as religious classic. Some of the topics included in 'Varieties of Religious Experiences' are, the experience of well being or of conflict in human response to God, the experience of religious conversion and of saintliness and mysticism.



Two years later Stanley Hall published a book 'Adolescence' (1904). In his work Hall studied how the notion of God and the moral sense developed among youth. And in 1910, the social aspects and anthropological development of religion were stressed by Irving King and E.S. Ames. They wrote 'The development of Religion' and 'ThePsychology of Religious Experience' respectively.



There were also contribuions from French sociologists like Emile Durkheim, Levy Brhul, Hubert and Maurs.

WULFF, M., PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION , NEWYORK, 1991, p.5.

GODIN, A., "PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION" in the NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPAEDIA VOL.12 , USA., 1967, p.258.



FINDINGS IN PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION :

To discuss religion using the terminologies of psychology is not an easy task, the risk in doing so would be discrediting the validity of religious belief. But such a task would reveal human behavioiur in relation to religion.There are variety of researhes conducted on the psychological perspective of religion and the effect of religion on people. Some of the interesing research findings are presented below.



RELATIONSHIP BETWEE RELIGION AND MENTAL HEALTH :



The research on the relationship between mental helath and religion was based on seven concepts.The table below which is procured from 'Religion and the Individual' by David Batson shows the line score of the results obtained. They give only a partial answer to the correlation between religion and mental health. 'Therfore if we do not find such a correlation, we have evidence that religion does not cause health. Yet even if we do find such a correlation, this does not provide clear evidence that religion causes health.'

BATSON, D.C, RELIGION AND THE INDIVIDUAL , NEWYORK, 1993, p239.

Harms in 1944 devised a non-verbal method for exploring religion among children. He divided the perception of religion among children into three stages. From his research he produced the following results.



Stage 1- (3 to 6 years) - The fairy tale stage of Religion. Here

God is percieved as a great King,

Daddy of all children living in clouds etc..



Stage 2- (7 to 12 years) The realistic stage. The child is more able

to adapt itself to institutional religion.



Stage 3- (12 & above) The individualistic stage. Children show

a variety of interpretations from the

conventional to the creative & mystical.



There are some more general findings as listed by L.B. Brown.

1. Parents seems to have greater influence in the formation of positive religious attitudes in their children.

2. Church attendence found to be in lowest levels among the married people.

3. Parents with young children tend to be over represented.

4. Poor church attendance is found between the age group 18-30.

5. Women are more religious than men.

6. Religion has positive effects on personal adjustments and acute stress can be relieved through prayer.

7.Religious minded people are more likely to avoid extra marital sex and drug abuse.



GOLDMAN, R.J., "RESEARCHES IN RELIGIOUS THINKING" in the PSYCHOLOGY AND RELIGION , BROWN, L.B., (ed), LONDON ,1973, p.174.

BROWN, L.B., PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION , LONDON., 1988, p.9.