Beginnings of Psychology of Religion - 18th and 19th Century

In the next few posts let us focus on one of the branches of psychology namely Psychology of Religion.

Different sources give different dates of origin for Psychology of Religion. If we could arrive at any consensus on the matter it is that Psychology of Religion as a separate discipline emerged from the 19th century. But according to the observation of Wulff, 'Roots of the descriptive trend in Psychology of Religion can be found in the writings that the Scriptures of the great religious traditions: in non canonical works for spiritual edification such as Augustine's confessions and the reports of the mediveal mystics and in the writings of certain philosophers and the theologians including Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), Fredrick Schleirmacher (1768-1834), Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) and Albert Ritschl (1882-1889).'

Psychology of Religion basically emerged as an outcome of N.American Empiricism. Individual cases, autobiographies, journals and answers to questionnaires served as a sources for Psychology of Religion. They are analysed and assessed trying to grasp the phenomena of religious experience. Thus the method used by Psychology of Religion is a scientific method. Some of the pioneering names in the field are Wilhelm wundt, G.S.Hall, J.H.Leuba, E.D. Starbuck, William James, Freud and Jung.

Wilhelm Wundt is a German who was the first one to establish Psychological laboratory in 1879 at Leipzig. He analysed how religion united Groups, Societies and Culture. He was always conscious about the importance or religion in human development.

In 1882 G. Stanley Hall issued Psychological reflections on moral and religious education. He also founded 'The American Journal of Psychology'. This has been the first scientific forum of Psychology of Religion .

A milestone in the field was J.H.Leuba's article named 'A Study in the Psychology of Religious Phenomena' in 1896. Another important contribution of Leuba was 'A Psychological Study of religion'.
In 1899 Starbuck gathered a mass of personal testimony from various sources concerning the phenomena of religious conversion in his 'Psychology of Religion'. Until then there were no comprehensive work in the field. Starbuck's work served as the first comprehensive hand book.