Spirituality and counseling in therapeutic practice

Religion & Psychology

In the book Invitation to the Psychology of Religion, author Raymond Paloutzian assesses and carefully examines scholarship that links religion and psychology. Philosophers and psychologists have raised questions and looked for answers over the centuries about religion, denominations, personal faith and God's role. In Paloutzian's book the approach is scholarly and meticulous. This paper reports three differences and similarities between religion and psychology.

Psychology and Religion -- Similarities and Differences

In clarifying personal vs. institutional religious behavior, Paloutzian explains that a person may well be part of religious "social group" that is in effect a religious institution. That individual, for the sake of illustration, could be Jewish. He attends a synagogue and participates socially with others within the Jewish faith. But there is also a psychological process taking place within the individual that serves to differentiate between one believer and another believer. Paloutzian points to the possibility that one person within that social religious organization may believe that God hears and answers prayer -- while another in the group of believers may not fully accept that concept. That second person may believe that the act of praying is a good way to release deep psychological thoughts but he may not really believe God is listening. In terms of the Jewish faith, both individuals are members (similarities), but when it comes to the psychological side of a practicing believer, there are distinct differences. Hence, the religious similarity is they both practice the Jewish faith and the difference is they have very different ways of participating psychologically in the same religious institution (Paloutzian, 1996, p. 9).

On page 57 Paloutzian finds similarities between psychology and religion as he explains that both psychological and religious behavior function on the "…assumption that behavior…and the things we choose to do of our own free will…" results from "natural cause-effect laws." He goes on to point out that each act a person engages in is determined by natural cause-effect laws, and that particular act would be repeated given similar conditions.

Paloutzian projects a scenario in which a person has "a sudden religious conversion" (64). The question he poses is this: if there is a psychological explanation for this conversion and also a psychological explanation (in face both explanations were valid), can they both be valid explanations? The psychological explanation could be that the individual was coming to terms with a "personal conflict" and a "cognitive need for closure" -- and hence, he turned to God (through a particular religious faith) as a way to justify him or to reassure him, or to fall back on. The religious explanation could be that a "supernatural being" actually "spoke" to the individual somehow. Since both explanations could be correct but because they are quite dissimilar, that is a valid difference in explanations about a religious experience.

On page 66 Paloutzian explains that the religious beliefs and the psychological approach to those religious beliefs within a person complement one another. Religious teachings require thought and analysis (they also require an understating of history) and psychology gives a person the tools to help analyze religious teachings. So it can be said that in the quest for spiritual meaning, religion and psychology both are components, working hand-in-hand, and hence they have similarities in terms of their participation in the faith (or conversion) of an individual.

The act of being converted can be "passive" in that psychological processes have caused the conversion or social forces have helped cause the conversion. Are they the same processes? No, but they have similar affects because either process brings the individual to the same place; and so therein lies another similarity (causation) and ironically this same similarity also presents a difference in the acquisition of a religious belief (Paloutzian, 141).