Abstract
This paper provides an overview of contemporary psychology of religion and points to the urgent need for the discipline to enrich and expand its horizons through an intentional and systematic approach to interdisciplinary theory and research. The study of conversion is given as a case study of this approach.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Belzen, J. A. (2010). Towards cultural psychology of religion. Dordrecht: Springer.
Bond, M. H. (Ed.). (2010). Oxford handbook of Chinese psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
Brock, A. C. (Ed.). (2006). Internationalizing the history of psychology. New York: New York University Press [See Geoffrey Blowers, “Origins of Scientific Psychology in China, 1899–1949,” pp. 94–111.].
Capps, W. H. (1995). Religious studies: The making of a discipline. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress.
Cleary, E. L. (2004). Shopping around: questions about Latin American conversions. International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 28(2): 50–54.
Dickens, C. (1859/2003). A tale of two cities. New York: Bantam Classics.
Glanzer, P. L. (2001). Christian conversion and culture in Russia: a clash of missionary expectations and cultural pressures. Missiology, 29(3): 319–29.
Gooren, H. (2010). Religious conversion and disaffiliation: Tracing patterns of change in faith practices. New York: Palgrave/Macmillan.
James, W. (1902/1986). The varieties of religious experience. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Juergensmyer, M. (2006). The Oxford handbook of global religions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kim, U., Yang, K., & Hwang, K. (Eds.). (2006). Indigenous and cultural psychology: Understanding people in context. New York: Springer.
Kitayama, S., & Cohen, D. (Eds.). (2007). Handbook of cultural psychology. New York: Guilford.
Newell, W. H. (2001). A theory of interdisciplinary studies. Issues in Integrative Studies, 19, 1–25.
Newell, W. H. (2007). Decision-making in interdisciplinary studies. In G. Morçöl (Ed.), Handbook of decision making (pp. 245–264). Boca Raton, FL: CRC/Taylor & Francis.
Rambo, L. R. (1989). Conversion: toward a holistic model of religious change. Pastoral Psychology, 38, 47–63.
Rambo, L. R. (1993). Understanding religious conversion. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Rambo, L. R. (1999). Theories of conversion. Social Compass, 46(3), 259–271.
Rambo, L. R., & Reh, L. A. (1992). The phenomenology of conversion. In H. N. Malony & S. Southard (Eds.), Handbook of religious conversion (pp. 229–258). Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press.
Rambo, L. R., & Farhadian, C. E. (forthcoming). The Oxford handbook of religious conversion. New York: Oxford University Press.
Repko, A. F. (2008). Interdisciplinary research: Process and theory. Los Angeles: Sage.
Roland, A. (1988). In Search of self in India and Japan: Toward a cross-cultural psychology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Sandos, J. A. (2004). Converting California: Indians and Franciscans in the missions. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Scroggs, J. R., & Douglas, W. G. T. (1967). Issues in the psychology of religious conversion. Journal of Religion and Health, 6(3), 204–216.
Smith, C. (2007). Why Christianity works: an emotions-focused phenomenological account. Sociology of Religion, 68(2), 165–178.
Smith, A. (2008). Indigenous and cultural psychology: where does faith come in? Pastoral Psychology, 56, 95–104.
Szostak, R. (2007). Modernism, postmodernism, and interdisicplinarity. Issues in Integrative Studies, 25, 32–83.
Tweed, T. A. (2006). Crossing and dwelling: A theory of religion. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Vasquez, M. A. (2008). Studying religion in motion: a networks approach. Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 20, 151–184.
Wulff, D. M. (2002). A century of conversion in American psychology of religion. In C. Henning & E. Nestler (Eds.), Konversion: Zur Aktualitat eines Jahrhundertthemas (pp. 43–73). Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Yang, F. (2004). Between secularist ideology and desecularizing reality: the birth and growth of religious research in Communist China. Sociology of Religion, 65(2), 101–120.
Yang, F. (2005). Lost in the market, saved at McDonald’s: conversion to Christianity in urban China. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 44(4), 423–441.
Yang, F. (2006). The red, black, and gray markets of religion in China. The Sociological Quarterly, 47, 93–122.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rambo, L.R., Haar Farris, M.S. Psychology of Religion: Toward a Multidisciplinary Paradigm. Pastoral Psychol 61, 711–720 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-011-0372-5
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-011-0372-5