The aim of this paper was to find out to what extent religious beliefs actually do stand in opposition and thus contradict psychology. The investigation pursues three pathways to clarify this: conceptual, historical and empirical. The conceptual discussion is mainly based on the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard who brings in psychology as a crucial factor in his religious ponderings. His understanding is that psychology and theology are contradicting each other, as psychology is about the actual lived life, whereas theology is about the ideally imagined life. Thus, the conclusion is that conceptually, religion and psychology stand in opposition to each other. The historical perspective builds on the suggestion that the term psychology appeared among Protestant Scholastics (Vidal 2011). This is investigated by looking at the Protestants’ understanding of the relationship between the soul and the body, which they thought were united. Yet the inwardness provided by the individual faith combined with an overall interest in knowledge about the human nature form the motivation for respecting psychology as an important science. The empirical perspective is provided by a qualitative cross-cultural investigation where priests were confronted with social dilemmas and psychologists with religious dilemmas. Interviews were made in Italy, Brazil and Norway. The Findings showed an asymmetry between priests and psychologists in the sense that priests accepted social dilemmas as being beyond their competences, whereas psychologists tended to define religious dilemmas as symptoms of psychological problems. The overall outcome, however, was that this is a dynamic situation that may change.
Klempe S.H., Marsico G. (2019). The psychological imagination of religion: A study on secularisation. In S. Brow and L. Tateo (Eds.) (2019). The Method of Imagination. (pp. 223-241), Charlotte, N.C. USA: Information Age Publishing;
Giuseppina MarsicoWriting – Original Draft Preparation
2019-01-01
Abstract
The aim of this paper was to find out to what extent religious beliefs actually do stand in opposition and thus contradict psychology. The investigation pursues three pathways to clarify this: conceptual, historical and empirical. The conceptual discussion is mainly based on the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard who brings in psychology as a crucial factor in his religious ponderings. His understanding is that psychology and theology are contradicting each other, as psychology is about the actual lived life, whereas theology is about the ideally imagined life. Thus, the conclusion is that conceptually, religion and psychology stand in opposition to each other. The historical perspective builds on the suggestion that the term psychology appeared among Protestant Scholastics (Vidal 2011). This is investigated by looking at the Protestants’ understanding of the relationship between the soul and the body, which they thought were united. Yet the inwardness provided by the individual faith combined with an overall interest in knowledge about the human nature form the motivation for respecting psychology as an important science. The empirical perspective is provided by a qualitative cross-cultural investigation where priests were confronted with social dilemmas and psychologists with religious dilemmas. Interviews were made in Italy, Brazil and Norway. The Findings showed an asymmetry between priests and psychologists in the sense that priests accepted social dilemmas as being beyond their competences, whereas psychologists tended to define religious dilemmas as symptoms of psychological problems. The overall outcome, however, was that this is a dynamic situation that may change.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
