Book Review ofInternational library of psychology: psychology and religionVariousAuthorsNew York, Routledge, 1999, 6 books $660.00 (hb) ISBN 0 415 19132 7 (original) (raw)

Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion

2010

Mr. Kenneth Giniger some time ago suggested to Dr. Holly Johnson, then President of Blanton-Peale Institute, New York, NY, that Blanton-Peale compile an encyclopedia of psychology and religion, a comprehensive reference work consisting of articles contributed by scholars of importance in the fields of religion, psychology, psychology and religion, and psychology of religion. Dr. Johnson also saw the need for such an information source and began planning work on the project with the assistance of Blanton-Peale colleagues, Dr.

The psychology of religion

interest shown in the articles, and the fact that the subject has since then been steadily growing, seem to warrant the presentation of the results in a more permanent and generally accessible form.

REVIEW: Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality (Nelson, 2009)

Dialogue or Dual Monologue? Psychology and Religion Sit Down at the Table. [Review of] Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality. by James M. Nelson. PsycCRITIQUES (Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books), Sept. 30, 2009, Vol. 54, Release 39, Article 1.

Defending psychology , respecting religion : The distinctiveness of the psychology of religion

2017

Some remarks about psychology of religion meant as a specific and autonomous domain are reported. The need of defining the object of investigation (religion) in a proper way and of defending the peculiarity of the approach (psychology) against the neurobiological and sociological reductionisms is stressed. The psychologist is interested not in religion itself, but in what occurs in human mind when religion is encountered within a culture (that is, religiosity). It is argued that religion is different from spirituality, search for meaning, mindfulness and so on since it is characterised by the subjective conviction to be in relation with the Transcendent. Such a conviction is expressed in beliefs, feelings, interpersonal relationships, rituals, normative behaviours. On one hand these aspects concern individual experience and, on the other hand, they are instantiated in a specific culture, with its own institutions, symbols and language, which develop in a given spatial-temporal conte...

Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: Studies in Comparative Religion

Studies in Comparative Religion (World Wisdom), 2013

In order to better cope with the pressures and stresses of the current day, modern psychology is anxiously seeking to find new therapies to address the increasing disorders within the human psyche. In the process new fields of research, such as humanistic and transpersonal psychology, curiously appear to borrow more and more from the wisdom of the ages. This volume, containing eighteen articles by noteworthy expositors of the perennial philosophy such as Huston Smith, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and Frithjof Schuon, presents the spiritual psychology of the wisdom traditions as a much-needed antidote to the current impasse in modern psychology. Some Endorsements for Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: “[Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy] is more than an anthology. It is a wisely crafted collection of classic and contemporary scholarship noting that what many are seeking is what has always been, a perennial philosophy, that remains foundational. As one of the authors, Tage Lindbom, properly notes, ‘Secularization is a fish in troubled waters.’ This book claims the waters and is essential reading for all those who may have forgotten or are simply ignorant of the rich foundation provided by the perennial philosophy.” —Ralph W. Hood, Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, past president of the Psychology of Religion division of the American Psychological Association, co-founder of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion and co-author of The Psychology of Religion “A necessary and bracing critique of the assumptions and limitations of contemporary Western psychology, this generous volume is also a passionate call and learned guide towards a truer perspective that embraces man's spiritual nature.” —Gabor Maté, M.D., and author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction “Knowing the nature of the mind is perhaps the most difficult undertaking, especially in today’s world. To comprehend the nature of mind one needs to turn to the domain of religion and spirituality. Yet the truth of the mind and its complexity cannot explicitly be defined in words. Inner or transcendent wisdom sees the mind’s own nature without the duality of the seer. Suchness (tathatā) of mind is only experiential and not expressible. The words used to describe thought are themselves a product of thought, which is conditioned and limited. Thus, differences and contradictions are unavoidable. Therefore, a comparative study of different viewpoints and commentaries is immensely important to awaken the inner intelligence to see the mind as it is. Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy: Studies in Comparative Religion edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is an outstanding effort in this direction.” —Samdhong Rinpoche, former Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, author of Uncompromising Truth for a Compromised World: Tibetan Buddhism and Today’s World “The rise of psychology has impacted the study and practice of spirituality, the experiences and attitudes relevant to ultimate human values that transcend ordinary behavior. Each chapter of this remarkable book demonstrates this interaction in a unique and provocative way. But rather than using psychology to reduce and ‘psychologize’ spiritual topics, its authors demonstrate how directives from the spiritual traditions can enhance and even illuminate the enduring importance of psychology in the 21st century.” —Stanley Krippner, Saybrook University, co-author of Spiritual Dimensions of Healing “The work at hand is a thinking and debating man’s delight. If you have any interest at all in attempting to include an educated and enlightened view of man’s higher functions in your purview of the world, you will learn from and enjoy this collection of essays. If you already have some knowledge in this area, brace yourself: you may see some of your favorites sharply criticized. A thought-provoking work.” —Bruce W. Scotton, University of California, San Francisco, co-editor of Textbook of Transpersonal Psychiatry and Psychology “This book, superbly edited by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos, is a masterful critique of the field of psychology and its loss of the sacred ground in which it once was rooted. It offers depth psychologists an opportunity to contemplate timeless truths echoed through the centuries by perennial philosophers who have always claimed psyche is subordinate to Spirit. Although ignored in depth psychology’s early years due to prejudice and lack of understanding, this is a message today’s psychotherapists must take seriously. Human beings need a deeper and wider transpersonal vision of who and what we are, which the saints and sages of the world’s spiritual traditions have always pointed to. In psychotherapy with a therapist committed to such a vision, patients penetrate into their unconscious depths and not infrequently awaken to the Ground of all Being. Their suffering itself occurred because they had turned away from Spirit. Above all, this volume passionately calls upon depth psychology to remember its origin in the perennial wisdom at the core of the great religions. There is something of a polemic in these pages. It deserves to be considered by depth psychologists of all persuasions.” —Bryan Wittine, Transpersonal psychologist and Jungian psychoanalyst “This anthology from Samuel Bendeck Sotillos is a must reference for anyone who is interested in psychology and its relationship to spirituality, and in developing an inclusive dialogue between disciplines that favor an integral outlook on the person and his or her potential. Selections in this anthology will inspire us to reexamine the metaphysical underpinnings of psychology, and remind us how important it is to rise above science’s attempt to reduce the human being to an epistemic object.” —Sangeetha Menon, National Institute of Advanced Studies (Bangalore, India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Beyond Experience: Consciousness in Bhagavad Gita “This anthology has some of the most discerning essays and reviews on spirituality and psychology, which provide much-needed care and caution to all those engaged in bringing them together or who wish to do so in future. Therefore, it is a must-read for all those who teach, research, consult, or study in such frontier areas as transpersonal psychology, states of consciousness, mind-body relation, holistic health, Indian psychology, and so on. It will be an invaluable textbook for courses in these and other related areas. I congratulate the editor of the book.” —Kiran Kumar K. Salagame, University of Mysore (India), Board Member of the International Transpersonal Association (ITA), author of The Psychology of Meditation: A Contextual Approach “One of the finest collections of essays on the Perennial Philosophy—a must-read for all psychologists who are engaged with spirituality and transpersonal psychology. The essays which critique modern psychology (including transpersonal psychology, and the framework of Carl Jung), in the light of the Perennial Philosophy are a revelation and make compelling reading. The book serves as a corrective to the excesses of modern psychology, and to this end Sotillos has done a commendable job. I for one will include the book in some of the graduate courses that I teach.” —Suneet Varma, University of Delhi, co-editor of Foundations of Indian Psychology “To its credit modern science by-and-large is becoming more cognizant of the essential connection between spirituality and psychological health and well-being and most of all its positive implications within the field of psychology. While there is ample data to document this in a plethora of academic journals and books, this new book Psychology and the Perennial Philosophy adds a novel contribution to the dialogue between psychology and spirituality, which captures many nuances that for the most part go unnoticed within these discussions, and last but not least, it provides a keen eye of discernment to understand this intricate relationship on a deeper level that is crucially needed. This work will be a valuable asset to students and long term mental health practitioners and professors alike who seek to better understand the relationship between psychology and spirituality.” —Harold G. Koenig, Duke University, Director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, co-author of The Handbook of Religion and Health

A Field in Crisis: Is It Time for the Psychology of Religion to Start Over?

One Hundred Years of Psychology of Religion: Issues and Trends in a Century Long Quest, edited by P. H. M. P. Roelofsma, J. M. T. Corveleyn, & J. W. Van Saane. Amsterdam: VU University Press., 2003

In certain respects, developments in the psychology of religion have paralleled those in other subfields of psychology. But the field is distinguished fiom them by the uniqueness of its object, religion. It shares this object with other scholarly disciplines, especially the religious studies, whose proponents, more intimately acquainted with religion, are inclined to view psychological interpretations as reductionistic. Moreover, religion is seldom a topic that psychologists approach with a disinterested attitude; thus apologetics is also a danger. The earliest psychologists of religion were liberally disposed, interested in developing new understandings of religion appropriate to the twentieth century. But nfter a period of sharp decline, those drawn to the field tended to be relatively conservative and sought, rather, to defend traditional religion. The broad agendas put forward by William James and Theodore Floumoy were narrowed to looking for religion's fruits, mainly physical and mental health. A comparison of early and more recent definitions of rcligion makes evident this conservative turn in the psychology of religion. "Spirituality," too, hm become assimilated to traditional theistic piety, and Templeton-sponsored research on mainly Christian virtues is reshaping the landscape of the psychology of religion still further. A fresh start, beginning with James and Flournoy and canied out in the light of contemporary hermeneutical understandings, is recomnlended.

Religions and Psychotherapies—Special Issue

Religions, 2014

The birth of modern psychotherapies-along with the birth of psychology as a science on one side and with psychoanalysis, other depth-psychological treatments and behavioral therapies in addition to medical treatments of psychological disorders on the other side-in the 19th and 20th centuries was accompanied by positivistic and mechanistic paradigms underlying empirical research and claims of scientific dignity [1]. Affirmations which could not be tested or observed empirically had to be excluded from science-including any kind of metaphysics and religious belief, notwithstanding pioneering studies by William James [2], Granville Stanley Hall, James Henry Leuba and Edwin Diller Starbuck [3] for psychology in general and for psychology of religion(s) in particular. In particular, the critique of religions by Sigmund Freud has continuously exerted a strong impact in the fields of psychiatry and psychotherapies; in addition, regarding psychodynamics and symptoms of psychic disorders, religious phenomena in the lives of patients may be just as affected as other cognitive and emotional aspects and behaviors . Consequently, religious experience and religious behavior of patients in psychiatry and psychotherapies have rarely been object of research and teaching apart from predominantly symptomatic and pathogenic perspectives .

Journal of Psychology and Theology

2015

True spirituality gives attention to the moral dimension in our lives. It is false thinking then to separate morality from spiritu-ality; there can be no moral development without a spirituality to sustain it and deepen it, and a spirituality divorced from morality only fosters the illusion of righteousness. –Neville Symington, Emotion and Spirit To really understand how human morality works... it may be advisable to shift attention away from the study of moral reasoning and toward the study of intuitive and emotional processes. –Jonathan Haidt, The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail Within the psychology of religion, a majorarea of theory and research has alwaysbeen religious conversion or spiritual transformation (Emmons & Paloutzian, 2003; Palou-tizian & Park, 2005). Paloutzian (2005) has suggested that since much of psychology is concerned with learning how human beings change, and developing effective methods for change, continued exploration of the processes that mediate spir...