Psychology of Religion

Nowadays, psychology of religion as one of the disciplines of religious studies has attracted the attention of many thinkers of both religion and psychology. Psychology of religion is a complicated discipline which consists of a variety of psychological theories and methods of understanding religion as well as the relationship between psychology and religion. Thus psychology of religion is the application of the theories and methods of psychology to understanding religion. Those who are concerned with establishing or negating any relationship between psychology and religion challenge one another due to their different approaches. This paper begins with a discussion of the origins of the psychology of religion, then proceeds to examine the ideas of some influential thinkers, and deals finally with the psychological approaches like the empirical approach as well as the methodology used in psychology of religion and other branches of psychology which have been influenced by it.