This course will explore the sometimes troubled, sometimes fruitful, often perplexing interplay between the studies of psychology and of religion. Psychoanalysts and other psychological theorists have long asked what is happening when someone is in the midst of a religious experience, or thinks of her/himself as being a religious person. Whether religion is perceived as a problem or as a possible source of insight, it has supplied significant motivation for the development of psychological theory. Religious practitioners, meanwhile, have responded with both delight and horror at psychology’s forays into the presumed turf of religion, as the two realms either merge productively or collide violently in their attempts to explain human identity and its place in the cosmos.
In our study of the general phenomenon of religion, we will, unavoidably, emphasize Christianity because of the particular social contexts of many of the key authors. We will branch out into other so-called eastern and western religions, however, whenever possible. Along the way, we will touch on such themes as conversion, mysticism, asceticism, aestheticism, and religious doubt.
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