Psychology of religion WF-ZPS-PR

Assumptions and goals:
Lectures in psychology of religion help students to acquire the knowledge of the relation of man toward transcendental reality, including genesis, structure, and function of religious experiences.
Special attention is put on the specificity of religious experiences connected with prayer, meditation, asceticism, and contemplation. Social context of experiences and religious behavior is stressed together with their distortions in sects. Majority of lectures is devoted to religious development, criteria of mature religious attitudes, surfacing religious crises, conversion and apostasy. The course has cognitive and educational aims. There is room for discussing religious attitudes, in particular religious experiences and behaviors. There is an opportunity to get to know the literature on the subject and enhance discussion on religiousness of individuals and social groups.

Program content:
1. Anthropological and methodological non-systemary assumptions, (reductionistic and non-reductionist trends) in the study of the psychology of religion:
2. Religious experience.
3. Religious manifestations: asceticism,
4. Religious manifestations, prayer, meditation.
5. Religious development: periodization of development, criteria of religious maturity.
6. Religiosity in difficult situations: religious crises, conversions, apostasy and atheism.
7. Movements and small religious groups: psychosocial functioning of religious groups and movements, psychological characteristics of the main religious movements in Poland,
8. Opportunities and risks related to belonging to religious movements.
9. Pseudo-religious groups, sects: definition and division of sects,
10. Destructive functioning of sects, prevention and therapy.
11.New Age.
12. Psychopathology and religious life: disorders of religious life, religious life of people with mental disorders.
13.Typologization of religiosity.
14. Methods of religious studies.
15. Intercultural and interfaith research on religiosity.