Psychological Theories of Religion

Abstract

This chapter is concerned largely with the theories of religion advanced by Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) and Carl Jung (1875–1961) for it was they who established the paradigms that have come to dominate the psychological, and psychoanalytical, understanding of and approach to religion. Their theories of religion, like those of Marx and Weber, have often been presented as if they were polar opposites, but as will be seen below, they share a good deal in common. Moreover, to maintain, as is sometimes the case, that Freud was anti-religion and Jung pro-religion is to oversimplify their attitudes toward and their interpretations of the phenomenon.