Psychological Perspectives and the Religious Quest

Psychological Perspectives and the Religious Quest addresses the relationship between psychology and religion from empirical, historical, clinical and theological vantage points. Historical and theoretical considerations include attention to the history of psychology of religion in the United States and issues in the assessment of religious psychopathology stemming from Freud's analysis of religion. The essays present empirical research through feminist and qualitative methodologies applied to the psychology of religion, and experimental method utilized in the investigation of intrinsic and extrinsic religion, as well as an examination of the religiosity of psychologists interested in religion. They also discuss pastoral psychology and psychotherapy from psychoanalytic perspectives, feminists perspectives, and from the vantage point of the identity, ethics and type of discourse within these interdisciplinary fields. The conclusion consists of theologically oriented considerations of the role of liturgy and narrative in the formation of the self and the impact of losing a mother at birth upon the theological worldview of a clergyman.