RT Article
T1 Asking questions and analysing answers about religious experience: developing the Greer tradition
JF Mental health, religion & culture
VO 20
IS 4
SP 348
OP 358
A1 Astley, Jeff
LA English
PB Taylor & Francis
YR 2017
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1839000066
AB Alister Hardy’s initiative in starting a programme of empirical research into religious experience in the UK employing the methods of the social sciences continues through the work of the Religious Experience Research Centres. John Greer initiated a similar research tradition through his questionnaire surveys of the incidence and nature of religious experience among children and young people in Northern Ireland. Leslie Francis and Tania ap Siôn replicated Greer’s classic surveys, with ap Siôn extending Greer’s analysis into nine categories of religious experience (Guidance and help, Exam concerns, God’s presence, Answered prayer, Death, Sickness, Conversion, Difficulty of description, and Miscellaneous), while also noting their setting and frequency. This paper develops the Greer tradition further, drawing on more recent data from pupils in the Republic of Ireland, and arguing for a modified analytical process in order to provide a more nuanced understanding of reports of religious experience.
K1 Alister Hardy
K1 Irish schools
K1 John Greer
K1 Religious Experience
K1 Students
DO 10.1080/13674676.2017.1280008