PSYCHOLOGY OF RELIGION

Abstract

Most human beings on the face of the earth are – either by nature or by nurture – religious, though they would differ from each other in many particular aspects. Many among them are passionately committed to a ‘divine’ centre of life, and are ultimately concerned with designing a life in accordance with its dynamics. It is true that religion is an all encompassing phenomenon in the life of any human being who is seriously religious. In fact, no sector of life could be compartmentalised or marked out as unaffected or uninfluenced by religion. In other words, religious reality is that which permeates the entire life of a person, and it could be identified beneath the motives, feelings, behaviour patterns, and value orientations of religious adherents, covering the entire gamut of human existence, activities, and the continued becoming processes. Elements that constitute the religious reality generally include, (i) a drive on the part of an individual person to cultivate a transcendental dimension of life in relation to a reality that transcends the bounds of sense, (ii) a transformative experience of that reality, which is christened as religious experience, (iii) an articulate credo, if belonging to a community of believers or an organised pattern of religion, (iv) a value system that marks the characteristic behaviours infused with moral sensitivity, (v) a set of rituals to celebrate and relive the religious experience on a daily basis, and (vi) a sense of awe, commitment, and ecstasy that pervades and transforms the entire life, leading to a balanced or integrated life – both at the personal and communitarian levels.