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Article: Psychology
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Science and Religion
- Author:
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Psychology
Psychology is a broad-ranging discipline concerned with human mind and emotion, experience and behavior, and personality development and disorder. It goes back at least to the pre-Socratics of ancient Greece, and has always been a central topic in philosophy. It has also been a concern of many religious thinkers, perhaps especially in the Christian and Buddhist traditions. However, psychology as a distinct autonomous discipline only goes back to the nineteenth century.
After considering the implications for theology of the emergence of psychology as a distinct discipline, three different strands in the relationship between psychology and religion will be examined. First ...