Introduction: Psychology and Religion as Pursuits of Wisdom
When psychology was constituted as an experimental science, during the nineteenth century, it became formally disconnected from philosophy and religious studies. Yet, traditionally – and recalling that “psychology” (psycho-logia) etymologically means “the study of the soul” – these fields of study gravitated around the broad concept of “spirituality.” In ancient philosophy, wisdom was sought through practical exercises intended to cure our false perceptions of the world. Epicureans and Stoics, for example, performed a series of attentional exercises, which they regarded as forms of healing the soul: “First and foremost, philosophy presented itself as a therapeutic, intended to cure mankind’s anguish” (Hadot, p. 265). Psychology shares this goal of curing ailments of the psyche. Religion, through prayer and other uses of attention, tries to cleanse the soul of the disordered or diseased perception it calls “sin.” Attention...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Bibliography
Cohen, R. A. (2014). The neuropsychology of attention. Boston: Springer US.
Goodwin, R. (1999). Give us this day: The story of prayer. Hudson: Lindisfarne Pr.
Hadot, P. (1995). Philosophy as a way of life. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.
James, W. (1950). The principles of psychology (Reprint ed., Vol. 1). New York: Dover Publications.
Novak, P. (1990). The practice of attention. Parabola: The Magazine of Myth and Tradition, 15(2), 4–13. Retrieved from https://scholar.dominican.edu/all-faculty/141.
Styles, E. (2006). The psychology of attention (2nd ed.). New York: Psychology Press.
Weil, S. (2002). Gravity and grace (1st complete English language ed.). London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Palmeirim, B.M. (2020). Attention. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_200220
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_200220
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24347-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24348-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences