Kategoria BISAC: Religion >> Psychology of Religion

Spirituality, Theology and Mental Health provides reflections from leading international scholars and practitioners in theology, anthropology, philosophy and psychiatry as to the nature of spirituality and its relevance to constructions of mental disorder and mental healthcare. Key issues are explored in depth, including the nature of spirituality and recent debates concerning its importance in contemporary psychiatric practice, relationship between demons and wellbeing in ancient religious texts and contemporary practice, religious conversion, and the nature and importance of myth and...

It's the end of Christianity as we know it. But it's not a catastrophe-it's an opportunity.
Thousands are walking away from the church. Christians are grappling with their faith. And both believers and nonbelievers wondering-what's coming next?
Fearless and provocative, spiritual trailblazer Christian Piatt offers a roadmap to the future of faith with an unflinching examination of the church today.
What's left? Pairing the best "virtues" and worst "scandals" of Christianity, Piatt invites us to abandon institutional religion for deeper, truer faith.
Can we fix it? Guided...

This book investigates Mark s Gospel as an example of a transformative discourse that uses many interwoven rhetorical elements to move its audience toward change. A detailed exegesis of the Gerasene demoniac story (Mark 5:1-20) in its literary setting highlights its significant contribution to this transformative discourse. What happens to the demoniac release from bondage to evil, and entrance into a new perceptual world typifies the dynamics of the Gospel s theological anthropology and can be regarded as somewhat paradigmatic of human transformation in the context of Christian...

The first philosophers of the Frankfurt School famously turned to the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud to supplement their Marxist analyses of ideological subjectification. Since the collapse of their proposed "marriage of Marx and Freud," psychology and social theory have grown apart to the impoverishment of both. Returning to this union, Benjamin Y. Fong reconstructs the psychoanalytic "foundation stone" of critical theory in an effort to once again think together the possibility of psychic and social transformation.

Drawing on the work of Hans Loewald and Jacques Lacan, Fong...

The Inner Palace interweaves philosophy, the phenomenology of religion, the psychology of spirituality, the history of ideas, and transpersonal psychotherapy. It investigates Wisdom Traditions from around the world and the sacred realities they reveal, including teachings with Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Taoist roots. Its discussions are grounded in primary sources from these traditions, with support from some 2,000 books, taking us into the underlying experiences that sages of these traditions invite us to contemplate and to apply to our own lives. There are valuable...

The Inner Palace interweaves philosophy, the phenomenology of religion, the psychology of spirituality, the history of ideas, and transpersonal psychotherapy. It investigates Wisdom Traditions from around the world and the sacred realities they reveal, including teachings with Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Taoist roots. Its discussions are grounded in primary sources from these traditions, with support from some 2,000 books, taking us into the underlying experiences that sages of these traditions invite us to contemplate and to apply to our own lives. There are valuable...

Das Thema -Spiritualitat und Gesundheit- ist in den USA in Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft gut etabliert und gewinnt auch in Europa zunehmend an Aktualitat. Kongresse, Lehrstuhle, wissenschaftliche Publikationen und spirituelle Behandlungsansatze zeugen davon.
Die Schwierigkeit einer einheitlichen und operationalisierbaren Definition von Spiritualitat ist ein wesentlicher Grund fur die Zuruckhaltung der empirischen Wissenschaften, spirituelle Aspekte in die Gesundheitsforschung mit einzubeziehen. Wie eine zunehmende Anzahl von Studien belegt, stellen Religiositat und Spiritualitat fur viele...

Awarded the 2007 National Research Prize SAES/AEFA.
This study is a reappraisal of John Bunyan in the light of the dissenting religious culture of the late-seventeenth century. Charges of schism and fanaticism were repeatedly levelled against Bunyan, both from within the dissenting community and without, but far from being chastened by these accusations, Bunyan responded with a religious discourse marked by a rhetoric of excess. The focus of this book is therefore upon Bunyan s overwhelming spiritual experiences, especially the representation of torment, in his literary and...

Social exclusion is one of the most significant problems facing individuals with mental illness in contemporary Ireland. In the era of the growing secular medical-industrial complex and its alienating effects, it is important to strengthen confidence in mental health services that promote social inclusion, specifically for stigmatised groups. As mainstream facilities remain attached to a biomedical framework, religious outlets operating in the voluntary sector may serve as an alternative option.
This book examines religion s therapeutic potential, concentrating on aspects of Catholicism...

Sayyid Qutb is widely considered the guiding intellectual of radical Islam, with a direct line connecting him to Osama bin Laden. But Qutb has too often been treated maliciously or reductively-"the Philosopher of Islamic Terror," as Paul Berman famously put it in the New York Times Magazine.

James Toth offers an even-handed account of Sayyid Qutb and shows him to be a much more complex figure than the many one-dimensional portraits would have us believe. Qutb first gained notice as a novelist, literary critic, and poet but then turned to religious and political criticism aimed at...

What is God really like? What sort of personality does he have? What are his values and priorities? And who can best answer such questions? These are vital questions for anyone who wants to understand and please him, and so ensure an eternal future. But they are not philosophical or theological questions. They are about his psychology. Gary Bakker is a clinical psychologist with 30 years of experience at answering these questions. He has studied God's words and deeds (his self-report and his behavior), found evidence of 16 psychological characteristics of God, and from these, reports some...

Occupy Religion introduces readers to the growing role of religion in the Occupy Movement and asks provocative questions about how people of faith can work for social justice. From the temperance movement to the Civil Rights movement, churches have played key roles in important social movements, and Occupy Religion shows this role is no less critical today.

In this mind-bending exploration of traditional Christianity, firebrand Peter Rollins turns the tables on conventional wisdom, offering a fresh perspective focused on a life filled with love.

Peter Rollins knows one magic trick--now, make sure you watch closely. It has three parts: the Pledge, the Turn, and the Prestige. In Divine Magician, each part comes into play as he explores a radical view of interacting with the world in love.

Rollins argues that the Christian event, reenacted in the Eucharist, is indeed a type of magic trick, one that is echoed in the great vanishing...

In recent years, eating disorders among American girls and women have become a subject of national concern. Conventional explanations of eating problems are usually framed in the language of psychology, medicine, feminism, or sociology. Although they differ in theory and approach, these interpretations are linked by one common assumption--that female preoccupation with food and body is an essentially secular phenomenon.
In Starving for Salvation, Michelle Lelwica challenges traditional theories by introducing and exploring the spiritual dimensions of anorexia, bulimia, and...

This book challenges the traditional idea that religions can be understood primarily as texts to be interpreted, decoded, or translated. In More Than Belief, Manuel A. Vasquez argues for a new way of studying religions, one that sees them as dynamic material and historical expressions of the practices of embodied individuals who are embedded in social fields and ecological networks. He sketches the outlines of this approach through a focus on body, practices, and space. In order to highlight the centrality of these dimensions of religious experience and performance, Vasquez recovers...

The phrase "the meaning of life" for many seems a quaint notion fit for satirical mauling by Monty Python or Douglas Adams. But in this spirited Very Short Introduction, famed critic Terry Eagleton takes a serious if often amusing look at the question and offers his own surprising answer.
Eagleton first examines how centuries of thinkers and writers--from Marx and Schopenhauer to Shakespeare, Sartre, and Beckett--have responded to the ultimate question of meaning. He suggests, however, that it is only in modern times that the question has become problematic. But instead of tackling it...

While a rational consciousness grasps many truths, Gananath Obeyesekere believes an even richer knowledge is possible through a bold confrontation with the stuff of visions and dreams. Spanning both Buddhist and European forms of visionary experience, he fearlessly pursues the symbolic, nonrational depths of such phenomena, reawakening the intuitive, creative impulses that power greater understanding.

Throughout his career, Obeyesekere has combined psychoanalysis and anthropology to illuminate the relationship between personal symbolism and religious experience. In this book, he begins...

From Feng Shui to holistic medicine, from aromatherapy candles to yoga weekends, spirituality is big business. It promises to soothe away the angst of modern living and to offer an antidote to shallow materialism.

Selling Spirituality is a short, sharp, attack on this fallacy. It shows how spirituality has in fact become a powerful commodity in the global marketplace - a cultural addiction that reflects orthodox politics, curbs self-expression and colonizes Eastern beliefs.
Exposing how spirituality has today come to embody the privatization of religion in the modern...

Suddenly, in the 21st century, religion has become a political power. It affects us all, whether we're religious or not. Psychologist Dorothy Rowe shows how we can create a set of beliefs which allow us to live at peace with ourselves and other people, and to face life with courage and optimism.

What is it about religion that appeals to people? Why do religions and religious beliefs persist in the face of increasing secularisation, harsh criticism and even political persecution? Robert Hinde argues that it is not enough simply to criticize religion, we must understand it - not only how it causes so much conflict, but also how it brings comfort to many.

Hinde, a distinguished scientist, draws on a wide range of psychological, developmental and evolutionary research to explore this fascinating question. This second edition of Why Gods Persist is designed for...