American psychology and the religious imagination

✍ Scribed by Robert C. Fuller

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 119 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5061
• DOI: 10.1002/jhbs.20170

✦ Synopsis

In just three generations, American psychology grew from a fledgling science to a culturally authoritative discipline. Standard accounts of psychology's meteoric rise typically omit what most needs to be illuminated: the resonance between psychological theory and the symbolic universe underlying America's popular religious imagination. This article sketches a cultural history of American psychology by examining how many of its core concepts invoke a metaphysical horizon associated with the nation's heritage of unchurched spirituality.