The fact that psychology is not commonly included among the disciplines of
religious studies (e.g., Combermere, 1990) might be construed as implying that
there are no distinctly psychological issues in the study of religion. Yet, many of the
questions discussed in the history, anthropology, or sociology of religion could only
be fully answered by using psychological research methods. In the current article,
references to psychology are made primarily from the viewpoint of scientific or experimental
psychology rather than psychoanalysis, transpersonal, phenomenological
or other types of psychology including any form of psychotherapy. Furthermore,
within scientific psychology, the emphasis is on cognitive and developmental
psychology, primarily because of the relevance of those approaches to the issues
addressed in this article but, also, because of a relative neglect of these areas of psychology
in religious studies compared to the approaches mentioned above.