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Spiritual dryness, understood as a type of divine struggle, is the feeling that God is distant or absent, no matter how much one tries to approach him. Spiritual dryness is concurrent with symptoms of depression, job burnout, stress, and experiencing negative emotions. The purpose of this article was to present the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the Spiritual Dryness Scale (SDS) and the measurement equivalence of this tool for people involved and not involved in religious practices. Two groups of respondents (184 religiously committed and 199 uncommitted people) participated in the study. The results of the confirmatory factor analyses showed that this tool has a unidimensional. The measurement equivalence analysis conducted may suggest that, for those engaged in religious practices, the feeling of being completely abandoned by God and distanced from him despite efforts to get closer to him is a stronger descriptor of spiritual dryness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs psychological type theory to advance the quest for the psychological Jesus within the reader-response approach to biblical hermeneutics, drawing on data provided by 192 participants from a Pentecostal background who completed two versions of the Francis Psychological Type Scales: one explored the participants’ psychological type profile; the other explored the psychological type profile that they attributed to Jesus. In terms of the 16 complete types, 35% of the participants profiled Jesus as ESFJ, compared with 14% who profiled themselves as ESFJ. In terms of underlying scale scores, the data revealed a significant tendency for participants to construct their image of Jesus within the contours of their own psychological type profile. For example, thinking types were more likely to form an image of Jesus as a thinking type, while feeling types were more likely to form an image of Jesus as a feeling type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Francis Psychological Type and Emotional Temperament Scales (FPTETS) operationalise the four components of the psychological-type model of personality alongside the fifth component of emotional temperament. The ten-item scales have been employed in research as continuous variables that explain individual differences in a wide range of religious beliefs and attitudes. The present study tested the factor structure of the adolescent form of the instrument (FPTETSA) and proposes a short form (FPTETSA-S) in which each of the five scales comprises six items, drawing on data provided by 360 Canadian Baptist youth. Both the full scales and the short scales are commended for use where the need is for continuous scale scores rather than generating psychological type categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses Jungian psychological type theory as developed by various type measures as a lens through which to explore those aspects of Celtic Christianity that attract individuals to this type of spirituality. Data were provided by 509 individuals who completed an on-line questionnaire that included Celtic Christianity items conceptually linked with the four psychological type functions, sensing, intuition, thinking and feeling. Analysis of the results led to the creation of Celtic Christianity Type Scales which identified those aspects of Celtic Christianity that might reflect the appeal of sensing, intuition, thinking and feeling to this form of spirituality. Each scale achieved an acceptable level of internal consistency reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assertions outlined throughout this article are intrinsic to the "search for meaning" as centrality of human nature. The approach consists of a systematic study from the theoretical link Religion-Philosophy-Psychology underlying the spirituality and religiosity of the counselees in their way they manifest themselves in the sense of existing in relation with reality. It consists of a psycho-religious counseling, which can be useful to be applied to any religion, based on the phenomenological method and existential analysis, taking into account the ontological specificities of the counselees, so that they can actively reach a "meaning of being." A didactic example of case study is presented to illustrate its usefulness for the Christian religion context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study draws on psychological temperament theory (a development from psychological type theory) to map the characteristics of 105 Catholic priests serving in Italy, who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data demonstrated a strong preference for the SJ Epimethean Temperament (70.5%), with low representation for the other three temperaments: SP Dionysian Temperament (10.5%), NT Promethean Temperament (10.5%), and NF Apollonian Temperment (8.6%). In their study of religious leadership, Oswald and Kroeger characterised Epimethean priests as "conserving, serving" pastors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the connection between psychological type and personal wellbeing among a sample of 95 Catholic priests serving in Italy. Personal wellbeing was assessed by two measures: the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire and the Purpose in Life Scale. Psychological type was assessed by the Francis Psychological Type Scales that draw on the development of Jung's classic model that distinguishes between two orientations (extraversion and introversion), two perceiving functions (sensing and intuition), two judging functions (thinking and feeling), and two attitudes (judging and perceiving). The data demonstrated that lower levels of personal wellbeing were experienced by introverts than by extraverts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on psychological type theory and temperament theory as operationalised by the Francis Psychological Type Scales, this study compares the profiles of 53 non-stipendiary clergy and 77 stipendiary clergy serving with the same Diocese of the Church of England. The data confirm significant differences between the two groups. The non-stipendiary clergy comprise a significantly higher proportion of sensing types (70% compared with 33%) and a significantly higher proportion of judging types (93% compared with 73%). In terms of temperament theory, these differences translate into a significantly higher proportion of the Guardian Temperament (66% compared with 31%). As the Church of England increasingly relies on self-supporting ministry, the implications of the changing psychological type and temperament of ordained leaders is discussed. Here is a leadership more inclined to conserve the status quo than to pioneer new initiatives and fresh expressions of church within a changing environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The psychological and pathological correlates of mystical experience have been debated since the early days of the psychology of religion. In the present study the association between mystical experience and emotional wellbeing was tested among 1,266 Australian church leaders who completed the Eysenck Neuroticism Scale alongside the Francis-Louden Mystical Orientation Scale. No significant correlation was reported between the two variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although I study many forms of social identity, my research on religious identity has perhaps sparked the most interesting reactions. I first describe these reactions, as well as how I became interested in religious identity. I then report the results of an experiment that my Ph.D. student and I conducted to better understand social and personality psychologists' perceptions of the psychology of religion/spirituality, relative to other subfields. Psychology of religion/spirituality was rated as less rigorous and "mainstream" than psychology of gender, political psychology, attitudes and persuasion, and judgment and decision making. Furthermore, psychology of religion/spirituality researchers were most often assumed to be religious and least often associated with intelligence. Implications for how to mitigate biases against identity-related research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian translation of the Astley-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Theistic Faith was tested among a sample of 934 Italian-speaking participants (517 females and 417 males) between the ages of 13–80 years (mean age 30.1 years, SD = 16.0). The data supported the unidimensionality, internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the instrument and commended it for further use in contributing to comparative empirical research within the empirical psychology of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on three 'liminal' issues at the confluence of the study of religions and the psychology of religion. These are cross-disciplinary interconnections, responses to societal challenges and research methodology. This article advocates a cultural approach to build new bridges between both disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study drew on data provided by 11,809 13- to 15-year-old students drawn from the four nations of the UK to explore the level of agreement with the view that science disproves the biblical account odf creation, and to explore the power of five sets of variables to predict individual differences in responses to that opinion. The five sets of variables were personal factors, psychological factors, religious factors, attitudinal factors (including 'scientific fundamentalism', understood as an exaggerated, uncritical, and unqualified belief in the inerrancy of science), and theological factors (distinguishing between differing implied theologies of religion). Blockwise multiple regression demonstrated that personal, psychological, religious, and theological factors all held significant power, but that the greatest variance was explained by the attitudinal variables. When the five sets of variables were assessed within the model, 25% of the variance was accounted for. Greater incompatibility between science and religion was associated with scientific fundamentalism (β = .37, p < .001), with anti-religious attitude (β = .16, p < .001), and with atheism (β = .07, p < .001). These findings suggest that young people who believe in science in an unqualified way are more distrustful of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution brings psychological theories to bear on complex textual materials in order to provide new perspectives on the formative years (ca. eighth to eleventh centuries) of the famous Tibetan Buddhist tradition known as the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen). Recovering a frequently underestimated trope of "trauma" in the tradition's early corpus of tantric scriptures, the article modulates earlier scholarship, which argued that Dzogchen is a mystical religious movement that premises its teachings and practices on the disclosure and instantaneous liberation. Employing a critical and interdisciplinary approach, the study presents mythic narratives, historical sources, and evidence from cognitive science in order to argue that Dzogchen coalesced not under banner of "disclosure," but rather under the pressures of "dissociation." More specifically, the article focuses on the tradition's central myth of the "epiphany of the ground" (gzhi snang) to show that it 1) represented an attempt to encode socio-political trauma, 2) served to process a series of specific symptoms of dissociation, 3) points to significant correlations between dissociative trauma suffered by the "Ancients" (rnying ma) and the practical power of tantric techniques imported by the "New Schools" (gsar ma) of Tibetan Buddhism after the eleventh century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the construct validity of the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale in the light of psychological type theory that hypothesises a bias in item content to favour extraverts over introverts, sensing types over intuitive types, feeling types over thinking types, and perceiving types over judging types. Data provided by 364 Anglican clergy serving in the Church in Wales, who completed the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale alongside the Francis Psychological Type Scales, confirm higher scores among extraverts (compared with introverts), intuitive types (compared with sensing types), and feeling types (compared with thinking types), but found no significant difference between judging types and perceiving types. These data are interpreted to nuance the kind of emotional intelligence accessed by the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale and to encourage future scale development that may conceptualise emotional intelligence in ways more independent of psychological type preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to explore the relationships between churchmanship (Charismatic, Liberal, Conservative, Catholic, and Evangelical) and personality among rural Anglican clergy. Data were provided by 136 clergy who completed the short form of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised. The data demonstrated that clergy influenced by the charismatic movement were likely to be more stable and more outgoing but harder of heart than those clergy not influenced by the ‘charismatic’ movement, and that catholic clergy were less outgoing than their evangelical colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity was designed in the mid-1970s to assess individual differences in attitude through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood from the age of 8 years upwards. This study examines the internal consistency reliability, factor structure, and construct validity of the instrument 40 years later among 1511 year 4 students (8–9 years), 1544 year 5 students (9–10 years), and 1526 year 6 students (10–11 years) in Wales attending Church in Wales voluntary aided and voluntary controlled primary schools. The data support the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the instrument among the age range and commend the instrument for continued use in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operating from a perspective of an empirical psychologist of religion and spirituality, in this paper, I point to some areas of improvement in our field. Specifically, I (1) briefly target the lack of consensus in defining religion and spirituality; (2) point to the need for answering the crucial question: How unique is religion? (3) tackle the Western/Christian bias of the field; and (4) address three fundamental methodological issues (generalisability, self-report, and cross-sectional design) and their implications for research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study set out to explore the trajectory of personal, moral and spiritual values of students taking Religious Studies at A level in the UK. A sample of 150 students completed a battery of measures at the beginning of their period of A level study and again at the end. The data found no difference over this period of time in personal values (purpose in life, self-esteem, and empathy) in some moral values (concerning anti-social behaviour and concerning substance use) and in levels of religious exclusivism or frequency of private prayer. The areas in which significant differences were observed were concerned with attitude toward sex and relationships, religious pluralism, belief in life after death, and mystical orientation. Between the ages of 16 and 18 years, following two years’ engagement with Religious Studies at A level, the participants became more liberal in their approach toward sex and relationships, less convinced about the truth claims of religious pluralism, less likely to adhere to traditional Christian teaching on life after death, and less open to mystical experience. They are also less certain of ever having had a religious experience, and less frequent in their practice of religious attendance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study employs psychological type theory and tests the hypothesis that some psychological types are more likely to experience and to report religious experience than others. A total of 4421 practising Anglican clergy and laity (2586 men and 1835 women) responded to the question, “Have you ever had something you would describe as a ‘religious experience’?” on a four-point scale, and completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales that distinguish between two orientations (introversion and extraversion), two perceiving functions (sensing and intuition), two judging functions (thinking and feeling), and two attitudes toward the outer world (judging and perceiving). The data confirmed that the perceiving process is fundamental to individual differences in openness to religious experiences. Among practising Anglican clergy and laity intuitive types were more likely than sensing types to report religious experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the association between mystical experience, as captured by the Francis–Louden Mystical Orientation Scale, and psychological health, as captured by the Eysenckian three-dimensional model of personality, among 329 students attending a state university in Turkey. The data reported no significant association between mystical orientation and psychoticism scores, and a small but significant positive association between mystical orientation and neuroticism scores, after controlling for sex differences. This finding suggests that there may be a small inverse association between mystical experience and psychological health among students in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper explores the relationship between attachment to God (AG) and authenticity/inauthenticity among Christian youths in relation to a range of socio-demographic variables. Cross-sectional data were collected from 100 South African Christian youths using measures of AG and authenticity/inauthenticity. The correlation results reveal that feelings of insecurity in terms of having anxiety in a relationship with God is positively related to self-alienation (feeling out of touch with oneself) and accepting external influences (conforming to the standards and expectations of others), but negatively correlated to authentic living (being in tune with one’s self). Feelings of insecurity in terms of avoidant God-attachment was also related to self-alienation. In addition, demographic differences were observed for gender and church denomination. These results suggest that insecurity with God may either be linked to feelings of authenticity or self-estrangement among Christian youths and have broad implications, both for clinical usage and further cross-cultural research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is argued that the psychology of religion should be seen as interacting with theology in a broader way than is usual at present, especially in relation to the concept of revelation. Examination of revelatory experiences, especially Christ’s resurrection appearances, may be seen in terms of this broader interaction not only as solving certain historical puzzles, but as bringing to fruition Arthur Peacocke's hope for application to spiritual experience of understandings of divine action that have been developed within the science–theology dialogue. The pluralistic implications of this approach are examined, and the possibilities open to psychologists in relation to both interpretation and research strategies are outlined. It is stressed that what is required is not simply interdisciplinarity, as this is usually understood, but transdisciplinarity of the kind that questions the boundaries and methodologies accepted by specialists in one or other of the disciplines concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on data from the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey, this study was designed to assess the connection between religious affect (as a measure of Christian commitment) and global happiness (as a measure of personal well being) among a sample of 6,194 young churchgoers in Australia between the ages of 8 and 14 years, attending a range of denominations, including Catholic, Anglican, Uniting, Pentecostal, and other Protestant churches. Employing the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and the Powell Index of Global Happiness, the data demonstrate a significant positive correlation between religious affect and global happiness, after controlling for individual differences in sex and age. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The integration of highly religious minority students into institutions of higher education poses significant pedagogical and value challenges for students and teachers alike. We offer a framework for analyzing such challenges, distinguishing between practical concerns, identity issues and value conflicts. By contrasting a deficit perspective to ‘Diversity as resource’, we argue that the latter enables teachers to utilize a collaborative knowledge model in class, surmounting some of the value challenges involved. We present the case of ultra-orthodox students in Israel who have recently entered the gates of higher education for the first time in this society's history. We analyze the narratives of 30 lecturers who teach this population. Most of them adopt a deficit perspective and see their role as academic gatekeepers, minimally adjusting content and pedagogy. A smaller group fosters cross-cultural dialog via a ‘Diversity as resource’ perspective. These findings lead to recommendations for successfully teaching highly religious students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coping method suffering for others as religious meaning-making (SORM) is analysed regarding its varieties, prerequisites, and functions in a group (n = 10) of practising Christians living with cancer. In-depth interviews are featured in this qualitative, longitudinal study of the interdependence of religiosity and coping. A common feature of the analysed narratives is the idea that the informant's suffering would have – or at least had the potential to have – a positive effect on other individuals. This idea is identified as the “coping tool” of the coping method. Three different variants of SORM are identified, with a variety of prerequisites. The function in all cases is to conserve the significant object sense of meaning and, in some cases: survival. A case study is presented that shows how the coping method can be maintained over time by changing the coping tools of the method when they lose their efficacy in the coping process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Santosh–Francis Scale of Attitude toward Hinduism was originally developed and tested among Hindus in the UK as part of a programme designed to assess religious affect across faith traditions. The present study tests the internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the instrument among 149 students in Karnatak University Dharwad (74 males and 75 females), India. The data demonstrated an alpha coefficient of .90, suggesting a high level of internal consistency reliability and commending the instrument for further application within Hindu communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Personality traits have shown variable relationships to measures of religious motivation. For example, Costa and McCrae (1985) and McCrae and Costa (1999) suggested that individuals who are high in agreeableness and conscientious gravitate toward religion once they ‘meet’ with religion as a cultural identity Openness to experience involves varied expressions including sensitivity to aesthetics, and egalitarian values (e.g. McCrae and Costa 1996). As such, it has been shown to be negatively correlated with measures of religious fundamentalism, and positively correlated with intrinsic religious motivation. However, other reviews have found only small correlations between personality and religious motivation. Our study was designed to test the relationships among the Big 5 personality factors with Hoge’s Intrinsic Religious Motivation in an undergraduate sample. Results showed that only openness to experience and intrinsic religious motivation were significantly correlated, providing further support for the idea that religious motivation and personality factors may require further research elaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ‘theology of religions’ is concerned with the interpretation and evaluation of the divergent truth-claims and views of salvation that are asserted or implied by different religious traditions. This study proposes a new multi-choice index that distinguishes between six current positions within the theology of religions, characterised as Atheism, Agnosticism, Exclusionism, Inclusivism, Pluralism, and Interreligious perspective, with a further subdivision between two expressions of the pluralism perspective. The construct validity of this new measure is supported by the performance of the instrument in respect of a network of theories (regarding how these different positions may relate to the factors of sex, age, personal religiosity and attitude toward religious diversity) among a sample of 10,754 13- to 15-year-old students from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study draws on Jungian psychological type theory to illuminate the relationship between curates and training incumbents. During a three-day residential programme organised by an Anglican Diocese in England, 11 curate–incumbent pairs (and one additional incumbent) completed the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator and participated in four workshops organised, respectively, according to their scores recorded on the orientations (extraversion and introversion), on the perceiving process (sensing and intuition), on the judging process (thinking or feeling), and on the attitudes (judging and perceiving). The data generated from these four workshops illustrated the importance of individual differences in psychological type for shaping emphases in approaches to pastoral practice. The implications of these findings are discussed for the relationship between curates and their training incumbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the connection between psychological type and burnout among a sample of 155 Catholic priests serving in Italy. Burnout was assessed by the Francis Burnout Inventory that draws on Bradburn's classic model of balanced affect to conceptualise poor work-related psychological health (burnout) in terms of high levels of emotional exhaustion in ministry in the absence of good levels of satisfaction in ministry. Psychological type was assessed by the Francis Psychological Type Scales that draw on the development of Jung's classic model that distinguishes between two orientations (extraversion and introversion), two perceiving functions (sensing and intuition), two judging functions (thinking and feeling), and two attitudes (judging and perceiving). The data demonstrated that higher levels of burnout were experienced by introverts than by extraverts. These findings are consistent with the view that the clerical profession has been shaped by inter-personal expectations that are more readily met by extraverts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As part of a longitudinal study of Anglican clergy in England and Wales, a measure of Jungian psychological type, the Francis Psychological Type Scales, was used. When early responders to the survey were compared to late responders, the main difference between the two groups was located in the judging process. There was a significantly higher proportion of feeling types among the late responders (72% compared with 56%). Among late responders, 43% were dominant feeling types compared with 28% among the early responders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing interest in studying the association between spirituality and addiction, and the effect of mindfulness on recovery. There have been some attempts at exploring the mediators of the association, but seldom in the context of Christian contemplation and rarely within a single theoretical framework of psychology. This article reports two case studies from an intervention study carried out in Nairobi, Kenya, that suggest that the Christian contemplative practice has the potential to reduce alcohol misuse while facilitating the emergence of a three-dimensional religious-spirituality model involving the character strengths of self-awareness, self-regulation, humility, and leading to forgiveness, social responsibility, and social intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This essay introduces a review symposium on Ara Norenzayan's bookBig Gods(2013). The essay reviews Norenzayan's earlier publications on religion, sums up the main points of criticism that have been put forward by the contributors, and raises some concerns about the questions to be asked about ‘religion.’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Italian translation of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity was developed and tested among a sample of 575 young people between 16 and 17 years of age attending secular secondary schools in Rome, Italy. The data supported the unidimensionality, internal consistency reliability and construct validity of this instrument and commend it for further use in contributing to comparative empirical research within the psychology of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article will go into relations between mental mortification and the timely topic of abuse of children in Catholic institutions. Explorations are based upon qualitative research carried out at the University of Groningen. As unexpected as it may seem, in Dutch monastic life mortification was (still) being practiced during the 1950s and 1960s. Besides physical mortification that was primarily aimed at disciplining the body, members of religious communities also performed mental mortification to discipline their will. In this article the psychological context of mental mortification will be described in order to shed light on the topic of psychological abuse in particular. In the concluding section attention will be paid to parallels between mental mortification practices and experiences brought forward in testimonies of victims. In addition, the ways in which mental mortification may have caused abusive behaviour will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrative research is based on the understanding that we create our experiences through language. That is, westoryourselves into being. What do narrative researchers do when we meet the limits of language to express experience? In an earlier issue ofQualitative Research in Psychology, Coyle (2008) raised this issue as a particular challenge to qualitative research in the psychology of religion. In this article, I draw on the findings of a study I conducted on spiritual coping to illustrate how narrative research addresses this challenge. By offering a broad range of tools to investigate the form as well as the content of people's stories, narrative methodologies take the reader beneath the surface layer of content to reveal multiple levels of meaning. In this article, I also build on Coyle's arguments about the importance of qualitative research in the psychology of religion by demonstrating the specific strengths of narrative methods in reflecting both the range and complexity of people's spiritual and religious experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major religious traditions agree in advocating and promoting love of neighbour as well as love of God. Love of neighbour is reflected in altruistic behaviour and empathy stands as a key motivational factor underpinning altruism. This study employs the empathy scale from the Junior Eysenck Impulsiveness Questionnaire to assess the association between empathy and God images among a sample of 5993 religiously diverse adolescents (13–15 years old) attending state maintained schools in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and London. The key psychological theory being tested by these data concerns the linkage between God images and individual differences in empathy. The data demonstrate that religious identity (e.g. Christian, Muslim) and religious attendance are less important than the God images which young people hold. The image of God as a God of mercy is associated with higher empathy scores, while the image of God as a God of justice is associated with lower empathy scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses the design of the quantitative component of the ‘Young People’s Attitudes to Religious Diversity’ project, conceived by Professor Robert Jackson within the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, and presents some preliminary findings from the data. The quantitative component followed and built on the qualitative component within a mixed method design. The argument is advanced in seven steps: introducing the major sources of theory on which the quantitative approach builds from the psychology of religion and from empirical theology; locating the empirical traditions of research among young people that have shaped the study; clarifying the notions and levels of measurement employed in the study anticipating the potential for various forms of data analysis; discussing some of the established measures incorporated in the survey; defining the ways in which the sample was structured to reflect the four nations of the UK, and London; illustrating the potential within largely descriptive cross-tabulation forms of analysis; and illustrating the potential within more sophisticated multivariate analytic models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mystical writings of Teresa of Avila and those of John of the Cross can be compared in many ways. The comparative approaches discussed in this paper focus on the use of spatial imagery. Both mystical authors express their transformative experiences in a variety of metaphors. Their choice of these metaphors is not arbitrary. On the contrary, it is very revealing. Several core metaphors display spatial patterns which will be compared and understood in terms of their cultural commonalities and psychological differences. Cultural-historical (von Balthasar), Jungian (Welch, Maas as opposed to Howe), Freudian (Erikson, Riemann), self-psychological (Julian, Frohlich) and object-relational (Barron) explanations will be discussed. It will be argued that psychological differences between the two mystics explain their different use of spatial imagery. Several models, by focusing on the use of spatial imagery, can shed light on the crucial differences between these two mystics, their mystical writings and their mystical experiences even though some models may seem more encompassing than other ones in explaining the specific psychological differences. Attention will also be drawn to the observation that the dynamics of these mystical experiences (as processes of transformation) are reflected in the ways their use of spatial imagery develops. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study draws on qualitative questionnaire data provided by 22 women ministers of word and sacrament serving within the United Reformed Church in England to provide a health check across the four conceptually distinct areas of physical health, psychological health, religious health, and spiritual health. Here spiritual health is defined in terms of Fisher's notion of good relationships within the personal, communal, environmental and transcendental domains. The data reveal relatively poor levels of physical, psychological, religious and spiritual health. Many of the symptoms described and many of the issues raised are consistent with a picture of the clergy being an occupational group under considerable work-related pressure and without adequate support mechanisms to help prevent such work-related pressure leading to significant personal damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Religious Experience Reconsidered was premised on the idea that experience is a site of contested meaning and value for subjects (and scholars). Although the concept of specialness has drawn considerable attention, my goal in writing the book was to update efforts to use attribution theory to bridge between religious studies and the psychology of religion. I intended the focus on micro-social processes to complement analysis at the macro-social level. The need for a broader, more generic second order term, such as specialness, emerged in the context of working out an attributional approach and can and should be extended more broadly. While anything can be set apart as special and an analysis of the politics of deeming is essential, we can still ask if there is empirical evidence to suggest that humans are more likely to set some things apart than others within or across cultures. When we take experience as a site for study, we do not have to limit ourselves to describing the range of views held by our subjects, but can also legitimately seek to explain experience in terms that make sense to us as researchers. The breaking of taboos against explaining experience in naturalistic terms will only have apocalyptic consequences if we assume a special/ordinary binary; viewed on a continuum, we can still find special meaning and value in experiences that are not protected by taboos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: I suggest that Taves’ prescription for Religious Studies and related fields comprises a shift in perspective for approaching the psychology of religion, from an of-religion perspective to a psychology-of perspective, and that this reframing has a number of important and promising implications for future progress. I then use this perspective-shift characterization to extend and comment upon Taves’ discussion of several key issues, including the distinction between ascriptive and sui-generis models of religion, the need for a building-block approach to religion and religious experience, and the problem of defining religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: After discussing evidence of irreligion and the rise of the so called “New Atheism”, the authors refute the claim that this poses a problem for the cognitive science of religion and its hypothesis that religion is natural. The “naturalness hypothesis” is not deterministic but probabilistic and thus leaves room for atheism. This, the authors maintain, is true of both the by-product and adaptationist stances within the cognitive science of religion. In this context the authors also discuss the memetic or “unnaturalness” hypothesis, i.e. that religion is a “virus of the mind”. The authors criticize accounts of atheism offered by cognitive scientists of religion as being based on unfounded assumptions about the psychology of atheists, and object to the notion that the natural aspects of religion by corollary make atheism unnatural. By considering human cognition in a semiotic framework and emphasizing its natural ability to take part in semiotic systems of signs, atheism emerges as a natural, cognitive strategy. The authors argue that to reach a fuller account of religion, the cognitive (naturalness) and memetic (unnaturalness) hypotheses of religion must be merged. Finally, a preliminary analysis of the “New Atheism” is offered in terms of semiotic and cognitive dynamics. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Although there are a range of fascinating, and at times controversial views, in Belzen's book Towards cultural psychology of religion: principles, approaches and applications, this commentary reflects on the worthy aspiration Belzen has for his book, namely that it will “stimulate others to indulge in this type of research.” Unfortunately, Belzen provides no guidance on how this stimulation may be practically achieved, over and above reading the book. The question of how to effect change to facilitate greater discussion of, and research in, the cultural psychology of religion is raised and a range of practical activities are discussed in this paper. The necessity for formal pedagogical training in the psychology of religion, and in particular the cultural psychology of religion is stressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this brief response to Belzen's proposal that the psychology of religion undertakes a cultural approach to its subject matter, I suggest that (1) the psychology of religion is not as a-cultural as suggested by Belzen and (2) a cultural approach has both practical and theoretical liabilities, including the lack of coherence and the inability to identify universals. I then offer a friendly amendment to Belzen's approach, suggesting from a Kuhnian perspective that he presents a cultural approach more in terms of rapprochement with the existing experimental paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary highlights some of the key features of Belzen's book, notably his suggestions about the nature of the cultural psychology of religion, and the implications of this for methodology. Although there are a number of interesting and sometimes controversial views in the book, this commentary will focus particularly on Belzen's emphasis on the importance of the study of narrative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a discussion of the volume Towards cultural psychology of religion by Jacob Belzen. Next to appreciation, some critical issues are raised, both on the level of theoretical assumptions and of empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper primarily contains a reply to critical reflections on Towards cultural psychology of religion as provided in the preceding papers of this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a brief introduction, this paper tries to establish what type of psychology the psychology of religion is. Having introduced cultural psychology in general, some theories applicable in research on religion are presented, and some examples of cultural psychological research of religious phenomena are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]