Religion & Psychology

Welcome to this web site. How to use? Find your way, over time, by the links at the bottom right (I'll post things in categories so they will be easy to find). Or just page down, as the oldest postings will remain on top here, and the newest will sink to the bottom.

Religion and psychology - hmmm . . . what's that about? This is a place to explore the history of American popular psychology and non-mainstream religious practice - and you'll find that the two have quite a bit of overlap.

In specific, we will be having a semester-long conversation with turn-of-the-century psychologist and philosopher William James; a contemporary James scholar and historian of psychology, Eugene Taylor; and others (including British athiest priest Don Cupitt, who speaks to us from a series of rare videos). We'll read and discuss short works by Freud and Jung and discuss the connections between contemporary religion and depth psychology. We'll read materials on Buddhist mind science. And we'll read some "street psychology" by Starhawk, in whose work feminist Wiccan ritual practice meets humanistic psychology.