A Tranpersonal Omission

Book review on

Hand book of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality

by Paloutzian, Raymond; Park, Crystal (eds) (2005)

Reviewed by David Fontana, 2009 published in Network Review No 98

I must admit to some bias here. I opened this book with a keen feeling of anticipation and excitement. An
edited book of this length, devoted not just to the psychology of religion but also to the psychology of
spirituality, seemed to me just the thing for which we have been waiting. I ended up feeling a little
disappointed. But before giving my reasons let me look at the book's contents, which in spite of my
reservations render it a very welcome addition to the bookshelves of all those with a special interest in the
subject.
As the editors point out, despite the fact that 'religion is the greatest force for both good and evil in the
history of the world' the psychology of religion was barely addressed by academic psychologists for much of
the 20th Century. The subject got off to a good start in the early part of the Century, with important early
studies by leading figures in the history of psychology such as William James and Stanley Hall (to say nothing
of the interest shown in it by both Freud and Jung), then fell from favour. There were various reasons for this
fall, though in my own view the drive by academic psychology to become a science based on the models
developed by physics and biology was one of the most important. Psychologists proved themselves all too
ready to dismiss religion as mere superstition, readily explicable in terms of wishful and magical thinking,
father fixation, early conditioning and the like, and until relatively recent times a specialist interest in the
subject was unlikely to help any young psychologists move up the career ladder. However, religion has
continued to play a major role both in social and individual psychology and in human thinking, motivation and
behaviour, and in influencing values and ethics and (sadly) in fermenting discord between cultures and
nations. Belatedly but inevitably, psychology has had to begin the task of integrating it into the academic
mainstream of the discipline.
The present text leaves the reader in no doubt of the quality and extent of the research now being
conducted in university psychology departments as a result of this upsurge of interest. The blurb rightly tells
us the book is written by 'foremost authorities' and 'grounded in the latest empirical research', and that in
consequence it offers us 'state-of-the-science perspectives on the psychological processes underlying
spirituality, religious behaviour and religious experience', and to this end the book is divided into five parts
namely Foundations of the Psychology of Religion; Religion Through the Developmental Lens; Religion and
Basic Psychology Subdisciplines; The Construction and Expression of Religion; and finally the 'Psychology of
Religion and Applied Areas. The five parts include authoritative chapters on such topics as Research Methods
in the Psychology of Religion, The Neuropsychology of Religious and Spiritual Experience, Emotion and
Religion; Religious Conversion and Spiritual Transformation; Religious Practice Ritual and Prayer; and The
Psychology of Religion in Clinical and Counseling Psychology. Every chapter is well supported by appropriate
references, and provides a good and sometimes very good introduction to the material concerned.
It seems somewhat ungracious to express reservations over a book of this extent and this quality, but my
own slight disappointment is born of the fact that the range of the book is somewhat limited. Every editor has
his or her ideas on what to include in an edited text, and disagreement over the details of editorial decisions is
inevitable, but any book entitled a 'Handbook', does lead one to expect a fully comprehensive coverage, and
this expectation is perhaps not fully realised in the present instance. The editors in their introductory chapter
describe the book as presenting a 'modern five-theme conceptual model for organizing the ... rich and
complex knowledge that the psychology of religion now comprises', and this description is fully justified, but
to me an obvious omission is the inclusion of a sixth stream composed of less easily defined but nevertheless
vital areas of the subject. Transpersonal Psychology, which of all areas of modern psychology is one of those
most closely associated with the psychology of spirituality, is one example of what might be included in this
stream. Other examples are mystical experience (to which the book makes little reference), and the personal
accounts of religious and spiritual experiences collected and published by the Religious Experience Research
Unit under any of its various titles. To these examples we can add the link between creative expression and
religious experience, the role of spiritual practices such as meditation and prayer, the religious experiences
associated with Near Death Experiences (NDEs) and with those paranormal religious experiences that have
significant and lasting effects upon the psychology of those who encounter them. A final example is Eastern
psycho-spiritual traditions which are virtually ignored in the book except for brief references to Buddhism.
In fairness the editors make clear that they are addressing the scientific psychology of religion, and they may
justifiably argue that the above themes have generated less scientific research than the areas they have
chosen to include, and thus that they are less likely to be included in university programmes on the
psychology of religion. Nevertheless, from a psychological perspective, the profound effects that the
experiences associated with these themes can sometimes have demand that they be examined and their
significance explored. The impression given throughout the book is that religion and spirituality are of interest
rather less in terms of lived psychological experience than in terms of quantifiable (and primarily social)
psychological data.
As a European I am also bound to draw attention to the virtual neglect of the European contribution to the
psychology of religion and spirituality. Of the 45 contributors to the book all are from North America save for
Jacob Belzen and Josef Corveleyn from the Netherlands and Patrick Luyten from Belgium, and the impression
is thus given that little of any note has taken place in the subject on this side of the Atlantic. This is not to
minimise the work currently being done in North American universities, which certainly exceeds current
European efforts, but scholarship is international and some attempt to show the similarities and differences
between American and European approaches would have been welcome to European readers.
In spite of these quibbles this book is an indispensable contribution to the psychology of religion and
spirituality, and one that I am privileged to have on my bookshelves. I wish it conveyed rather more of the
excitement that for me at least characterises the psychology of religion and spirituality and that helps draw
students to the subject, but the editors are to be warmly congratulated on giving us such an informative,
illuminating and valuable book.
David Fontana is Visiting Professor in
Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool
John Moores University. Among his
recent books is The Psychology of
Religion and Spirituality.

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