Abstract
Religion and spirituality has a long history as a topic of various human sciences . This chapter briefly reviews some of the main currents in the psychology and sociology of religion . In psychology, we discuss the classical pragmatist formulation of William James , and explore the role of spirituality in the work of Maslow . In addition, we discuss the influential theory of Allport regarding the internal and external forms of religiousness. Psychology in general has been an important force in advancing a more experiential understanding of religion . In sociology, the rationalization thesis of Weber has been a critical source of understanding modernity as secularization . More recently, however, religious scholars like Heelas have argued for a more fragmented societal development, with subjective spirituality gaining ground. This view is supported by the advances in the theory of post-secular society , propagated by esteemed scholars like Habermas. Religion is to be taken seriously as an experience and as a social form.
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Peltonen, T. (2017). Spirituality as a Phenomenon and Challenge of Science. In: Spirituality and Religion in Organizing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56312-1_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56312-1_2
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