The Archiv fur Religionspsychologie is the oldest medium in the psychology of religion. It is the official organ of the Internationale Gesellschaft fur Religionspsychologie (International Association for the Psychology of Religion [IAPR]) founded in 1914. Following a reorganization of the IAPR in 2001, the Archiv is now published as an international, peer-reviewed yearbook. The current editorship is shared by Jacob A. Belzen, Nils G. Holm and Ralph W. Hood Jr. The Archiv fur Religionspsychologie is open to all scientific methodologies, quantitative and qualitative as well as to established...

Although very different, and coming from a range of academic backgrounds, the contributors are nevertheless united in their attempts to understand more about mysticism, from a perspective that puts the human being in the center.

This volume positions itself on the cutting edge of two fields in psychology that enjoy rapidly increasing attention: both the study of human lives and some core domains of such lives as religion and spirituality are high on the agenda of current research and teaching. Biographies and autobiographies are being approached in new ways and have become central to the study of human lives as an object of research and a preferred method for obtaining unique data about subjective human experiences. Ever since the beginning of the psychology of religion, autobiographies have also been pointed out as...

In the past four decades or so, the so-called psychology of religion after having been deemed extinct, impossible or unlikely has risen to prominence again: the number of publications is rapidly growing, an impressive secondary literature (handbooks, introductions, etc.) is available already, infrastructure has been developed (a number of new journals devoted to the subject have been founded, organizations have been established, increasingly funding is going to the area), attracting many new researchers. Organizations like the American Psychological Association are now publishing in the field...

In 2015, both the journal Archive for the Psychology of Religion and the International Association for the Psychology of Religion (IAPR), the bearer of the journal, completed their first century. This occasion prompted extensive historical research to the scientific infrastructure concerned, and critical reflection on their reason for existence, dealing with questions such as: How is the psychology of religion doing? What is it about? Which factors play a role? Whom does it serve? What has been the place and value of the infrastructure now celebrating its existence? This celebrating...