dr Paweł M. SochaInstitute for the Study of ReligionsJagiellonian University

Unit of the Psychology of ReligionE-mail:

pawel.m.socha&uj.edu.pl

History of the disciplineor

Why a psychologistis interested in religious

issues?

Psychology of religion

Quite surprisingly…(and among

the others)the story

begins with Wilhelm Wundt, along with his Völkerpsychologie, in 6 volumes, published between 1905 and 1911

Wilhelm Wundt

(1832-1920)

Wundt’s ideasOrigins of myth

evolutionary process originating in elementary and nonreligious events

projection of human feelings and desiresimplementation of intentionality

Origins of religiona feeling that our world is a part of the

larger, supernatural onea need to comprehend MEANING

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1901)

… and his imagination of Punch figure

… and odd experiments

PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGIONas the discipline’s name

Edwin Diller Starbuck (1866-1947) The Psychology of Religion – published in 1899

The Clark’s School G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924)

Rector of the Clark’s University Founder of the American Psychological Association

(1892) Founder of the first laboratory of experimental

psychology (1888) Founder of the first journal on psychology: American

Journal of Psychology (1887) Founder of the first journal on the psychology of

religion: American Journal of Religious Psychology & Education

Teacher of eminent figures in psychology: John Dewey, L. Terman and others

James Henry Leuba (1868-1946) and his naturalism

1910 – Meeting of the Titans

Freud

Brill

Hall

Jones

Ferenczi

Jung

Place – Clark University

The uncertain future of religion

According to Leuba, the more widespread is education, the less religious involvement of individual persons

Research on scientists in 1914, replicated in 1933 revealed: less religious were more eminent figures in sciences Less religious were humanists than physicists

Will religion decline? Recent research by Maria Libiszowska-Żółtkowska (2000) confirmed the exact proportions of believers among scientists

The most famous American classic William James (1842-

1910) – the sick soul The opposite religious

type – a healthy-minded man

Two types of religious mystic: Active one Passive one

The Varieties of Religious Experiences (1902)Mind-cure – religious healingThe mechanism of conversion

Cosmic consciousness Ecstatic union with deepest truth Purification of sensory experiences Feeling of mystery Sudden sense of being there Deeper significance of a word or sensory

impression

The mystical ladderFeatures of mystical

experience:• Ineffability• Noetic quality• Transciency• Passivity

OTHER INSIGHTS OF JAMES Mechanism of

conversion Description of

saintliness Fruits of exaggerated

experiences for this reason decay

ANOTHER GREAT FIGUREJames Bisset

Pratt (1875-1944)Main scientific

outcome: Religious consciousness.

A Psychological Study (1920)

German language tradition Rudolph Otto – The Idea of the Holy (1917) Friedrich Heiler – Prayer (1918) Karl Girgensohn (1875-1925) – the Dorpat

School European journals on the psychology of

religion: Zeitschrift für Religionspsychologie (since 1913) Archive für Religionspsychologie (since 1914 and

at present) Psychoanalytic interpretation of

religionReligion as an illusion or illusion about

the future? Sigmund Freud (1927) and … Oskar Pfister (1928)

Harald & Kristian Schjelderup (1932) – brilliant analyses of personality of Bodhidharma, Ramakrishna and Martin Luther; also – case analyses of mental disorders with religious correlates

The Swiss giant – C. G. Jung

Religion as archetypal process

Individuation – do we really speak of religion or of something else?

French language tradition Apologetic orientation

Maine de Biran (1766-1824) – inner mystical experience as the proof of validity

Auguste Sabatier (1839-1901) – religion origins from the inner experience

Later – some Catholic priests and psychologists, like Henri Delacroix and Bruno de Jésus-Marie (Études Carmélitaines)

Critical orientation (pseudo-pathological) Pierre Janet (1859-1947) – religion originates from

psychasthenia, hysteria or other disorders Theodule Ribot (1830-1916) – religion originates from

constitutional features „Mainstream” orientation – Theodore Flournoy

(1854-1920) from Switzerland

The Flournoy’s principle of the exclusion of transcendence

Psychologists of religion should neither reject nor affirm the independent existence of the religious object, a philosophical matter that lies outside their domain of competence

Theodore Flournoy

(1854-1920)

The „early” Scandinavians Nathan Söderblom

(1866-1931) – personality mysticism vs. infinity mysticism

Tor Andraæ (1885-1946) Mystiken psykologi (1926)

Hjalmar Sundén (1908-1993) – religious role-taking theory

The Dutch & Belgian pioneers Han Fortman and Wilem Berger – pioneers

at the University of Nijmegen Later – Jan van der Lans (1933-2002) Antoine (Antoon) Vergote (1921-) – pioneer

at the Catholic University of Leuven (Louvain)

Andre Godin (1915-1997) – psychologist at the Lumen Vitae in Brussels

Italian psychology of religionGiancarlo Milanesi (1933-1993) –

Salezian University in Roma, author of the handbook on the psychology of religion (1966)

World’s psychology of religion• Spanish & Portuguese psychology of religion – Spain,

Brazil• Slovak, Czech• Other ??? – Russian ? Other Slavonic, Serb, Hindu,

Japanese…?

Polish pionieers of the psychology of religion

Jan Władysław Dawid (1859-1914) – author of papers and research on religious conversions, later published under the title „Psychology of religion” (1918)

Edward Abramowski (1868-1918) – theory of crypto-mnesia and many international contributions (in French and German) – collection of works: Metafizyka doświadczalna (1980).

Władysław Witwicki (1878-1948) – translation of two Gospels (Saint Matthew and Saint Mark) with psychological analysis, first and unique chapter on religiousness in the 2-volume handbook on psychology, theory of faith as a supposition in Wiara oświeconych (1938 in French, 1956 first time in Polish)