“A man’s religion is the audacious bid he makes to bind himself to creation and to the Creator. It is his ultimate attempt to enlarge and to complete his own personality by finding the supreme context in which he rightly belongs. In these pages I have undertaken the task of discovering the place of religion in the life-economy of the individual, of seeking a psychological understanding of the nature and functioning of the religious sentiment, and tracing the full course of religious development in the normally mature and productive personality”--

"The Pragmatics of Defining Religion" is a multidisciplinary volume on the problem of the definition of religion with chapters on the polemics of defining religion in modern contexts, the history of the concept of religion, the methodology of its definition; it includes several definition proposals.

Developed in almost thirty years of classroom experience, this book is designed to introduce students and other readers to the psychological study of religion. Robert W. Crapps deals with the major questions and figures that have dominated the psychological study of religion over the past century, dividing the discussion into four parts. Two chapters in part one suggest the problems and possibilities for the psychological study of religion in light of the nature of religion and the scientific method. Part two sketches the contributions to the study of religion of three intellectual currents in contemporary psychology: psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and humanistic psychology. part three explores the relationship between religion and human development, while part four directs attention to religious lifestyles and that weave differentiated parts of human experience into a cohesive whole. -- Publisher description.

In a thoroughly revised edition of this popular text, the authors use methods of social psychology to explore the personal rather than the institutional perspective of religious experience, and to describe and analyze this uniquely human and universal behavior in scientific terms. A new chapter has been included on individual development and personal religion, and there is a new section on music and language as facilitators of religious experience. Also, the authors present the latest version of their three-dimensional model for assessing personal religion as a means, end, and quest, and include clarification and evaluation of that model in light of criticisms of earlier versions. Nearly 100 studies done during the last decade have been added to the analysis of the relation between personal religion and mental health, and recent evidence has been included to expand the discussion of the social consequences of personal religion. This fascinating, controversial work will challenge and enlighten students of psychology, sociology, and religious studies.