[request_ebook] Religion and the Individual: A Social-Psychological Perspective

"This fine and challenging book serves a two-fold purpose. It is a valuable survey of work in the psychology of religion, and it is a milestone in the development of the work stimulated by Allport's seminal attempt to characterize different orientations to religion....If looking for a textbook on the psychology of religion, one would find that most of the important topics are covered....[It] represents a very exciting and provocative survey." --The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion

"A substantial contribution that will be a valuable resource for students of psychology and religion."--Allen Bergin, Brigham Young University

From reviews of the first edition: "The authors have provided a synthesis and survey of empirical social-psychological research on religious behavior and experience. . . .Comprehensive, thorough, and balanced. . .sophisticated, evenhanded, and appropriately complex. . . .The result is a clearly argued text. . . .The book can certainly be recommended to religious educators as a useful and instructive tool." --Theological Studies

"An insightful and useful work that should be valuable to sociologists interested in religion, mental illness, and intergroup relations. . . .A thoughtful and careful analysis of the multifaceted nature of religion." --American Journal of Sociology

"Comprehensive and insightful. . . .A well-organized, technically correct discussion refreshingly free of jargon. The analysis is careful, integrating the depth of a mature experience and knowledge." --Journal of Psychology and Theology

"Clear, readable. . . .Both summarizes and considerably adds to the growing literature on the social psychology of religion." --Choice

"This book is fascinating and provocative. . . . Well worth reading, particularly for those with some background in the psychology of religion." --Contemporary Psychology

"A coherent, integrated approach to the diversified phenomena of religious experience. . . .A major contribution." --Sociology and Social Research

"Fascinating. . . .Well organized, clearly written." --Theology Today

"Triumphantly escapes being trivial, tedious and irrelevant. Indeed, it is a most stimulating and challenging book which poses many important questions. . . . clearly and lightly written throughout. This book will be an important and possibly chastening stimulus and resource for teachers, students and practitioners in practical theology and pastoral care." --Contact, The Interdisciplinary Journal of Pastoral Studies

In a thoroughly revised edition of this popular text, the authors use methods of social psychology to explore the personal rather than the institutional perspective of religious experience, and to describe and analyze this uniquely human and universal behavior in scientific terms. A new chapter has been included on individual development and personal religion, and there is a new section on music and language as facilitators of religious experience. Also, the authors present the latest version of their three-dimensional model for assessing personal religion as a means, end, and quest, and include clarification and evaluation of that model in light of criticisms of earlier versions. Nearly 100 studies done during the last decade have been added to the analysis of the relation between personal religion and mental health, and recent evidence has been included to expand the discussion of the social consequences of personal religion. This fascinating, controversial work will challenge and enlighten students of psychology, sociology, and religious studies.