religion Archives

Can deeply religious people be intellectually humble?

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Dr Peter Hill studies intellectual humility amongst deeply religious people

Intellectual humility – the conscious awareness of the limits and fallibility of one’s intelligence – is a virtue in the search for wisdom. But is what’s true for philosophers also true for deeply religious people whose humility is tied to unquestioning deference to the divine? It is a question that both baffles and inspires those studying the psychology of religion. […]

Religious recovery from addiction and homelessness

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Professor Carolyn Weisz is an educator and researcher at the University of Puget Sound where she studies issues of homelessness, racism, and stigma. Her research explores the connections between social perception and well-being, and provides insights to guide decision-making and policy. Recently, she has worked with Kayla Lovett to explore the role that religion and faith-based residential recovery programmes can […]

Religiosity, crime and drug use among juvenile offenders

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Juvenile offenders who turn to religion often find new meaning in their life.

Sung Joon Jang is Research Professor of Criminology and Co-director of the Program on Prosocial Behavior at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University. His research focuses on the effects of religion on criminal offending and desistance and the rehabilitative effects of faith-based programmes on prisoners. Here, we take a closer look at Dr Jang’s research, which demonstrates […]

The Neuropsychology of How Ritual Creates Religion

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Rituals are able to generate transcendental mental states.

The research of Dr James Jones, clinical psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Religion at Rutgers University in the U.S., exists on the border of religion and science. He fuses neuropsychology with philosophy of mind to discover scientific explanations for religion. In his most recent publication, Dr Jones specifically explores how bodily behaviours, such as religious ritual, can affect a person’s […]

The return of religion or the end of religion?

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Jayne Svenungsson, Professor at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University examines the relationship between religion and secularism and the ideological underpinnings of the European concept of religion. She demonstrates that the term religion is a historical product of a secular but mainly Christian Europe, and that it is now more meaningful as an agent of disunity, and […]

The effect of religiosity on emotional well-being among prisoners

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Studies show that religion enhances emotional well-being among prisoners, but they rarely address how. Professors Sung Joon Jang and Byron R. Johnson at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, examine the effects of religion on offenders in the South African correctional system. They test whether religiosity is likely to lead to a sense of meaning and purpose […]