Western Cultural Psychology of Religion: Alternatives to Ideology

This essay is an extended reflection on Belzen's (2010) groundbreaking book Towards Cultural Psychology of Religion: Principles, Approaches, Applications. We will critically examine the terms culture, psychology, and religion separately and in relation to each other. The question we address is...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dueck, Alvin C. 1943- (Author)
Contributors: Ansloos, Jeffrey (Other) ; Johnson, Austin (Other) ; Fort, Christin (Other) ; Belzen, J. A. van 1959- (Bibliographic antecedent)
Format: Electronic Review
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science Business Media B. V. [2017]
In: Pastoral psychology
Year: 2017, Volume: 66, Issue: 3, Pages: 397-425
Review of:Towards cultural psychology of religion (Dordrecht : Springer, 2010) (Dueck, Alvin C.)
IxTheo Classification:AA Study of religion
AE Psychology of religion
AG Religious life; material religion
CD Christianity and Culture
ZD Psychology
Further subjects:B Book review
B Indigenous psychologies
B Ideology
B Western Religion
B Cultural psychology of religion
B Pastoral Psychology
B RELIGIOUS psychology
B Self-consciousness (Awareness)
B Colonization
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:This essay is an extended reflection on Belzen's (2010) groundbreaking book Towards Cultural Psychology of Religion: Principles, Approaches, Applications. We will critically examine the terms culture, psychology, and religion separately and in relation to each other. The question we address is whether unconsciously Western understandings underlie these concepts and then are exported into non-Western cultures. The concept of 'culture' may reflect a Western bias and may be injurious when exported if culture means de facto becoming self-consciously modern, remains an abstract idea, reinforces 'othering,' and serves to colonize the other. It is proposed that we listen to voices of non-Western scholars as they reflect on what 'culture' means to them rather than assuming that the meaning of the word 'culture' is universally the same. Second, we examine briefly the ways in which our understanding of religion reflects our Western biases in terms of the presumption of secularization, the meaning of religiousness, the Christian influence on defining religion, the use of religion in Western colonization, and the degree to which religion is defined abstractly. Third, we are concerned that the psychology utilized in the emerging discipline of psychology of religion is Western in that it reflects a capitalist, industrialized, individualistic, and pluralistic culture that may be less present in other cultures and perhaps even eschewed. Further, we think that in various cultures of the world, psychological knowledge emerges less from scientific observation but from the local religious/cultural traditions themselves. Finally, we examine how cultural psychology intersects with religion. We propose a model in which the specific religious cultures nurture the attitudes, emotions, behaviors, and relationships that reflect their critical values.
ISSN:1573-6679
Contains:Enthalten in: Pastoral psychology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11089-016-0731-3