Psychology, Religion and Spirituality

Professor David Fontana will be known to quite a few readers either as Visiting Professor of Transpersonal Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University, a recent President of the Society for Psychical Research or the Founding President of the Transpersonal Section of the British Psychological Society; in addition he is a Professor of Educational Psychology. I mention all this because it demonstrates the breadth of David's interests and therefore his unusual qualifications for writing a book which one hopes will be read by undergraduate psychology students as an antidote to the narrowness of many other academic psychology textbooks.

It is typical of David that he writes about his own predispositions in the introduction, characterising himself as one sympathetic to religion who believes that it has done more good than harm, a view by no means common among his colleagues. This leads him directly into a consideration of why the psychology of religion and spirituality is largely neglected; then some definitions of religion and spirituality. His own working definition of religion includes belief in a spiritual dimension, observance of a set of spiritual rituals or practices, and adherence to a doctrine of ethical conduct arising from spiritual teachings (this is close to his definition of spirituality). An important distinction for David, and probably for many readers of this review, is between belief and 'knowing'. If faith is a conviction that a spiritual path is worth following, then it must metamorphose into knowing if it is to be satisfying in the long run.

The next few chapters consider the introspection and inner experience, approaches to the psychology of religion (social or inner), religious beliefs and practices, and approaches to spiritual development. This last chapter is a particularly good account in terms of the various types of yoga, with which David is familiar given his deep knowledge of Indian traditions. The heart of the book is two long chapters on varieties of spiritual and religious experience, and concepts of self, soul and brain. The first chapter is comprehensive in its analysis but contains the only really irritating proof-reading error in the book, namely the systematic mis-spelling of 'imminent' for 'immanent', which even reappears in the index. Otherwise the coverage is exemplary, covering every conceivable angle, classification and type of explanation. The following chapter benefits from David's knowledge of Buddhist and Hindu psychology, transpersonal thought as well as of psychical research. In his discussion of the mind-brain relationship, David makes no secret of his view of the implications of brain-mind identity for spirituality; he also brings NDEs to bear on the question, as well as considering the implications of both prayer research and parapsychology. David concludes that 'religion and spirituality cannot be explained away simply as attempts to counter the fear of death, as the expression of a need to find in God or gods fantasy substitutes for earthly parents, as a neurotic escape from the realities of life, or as symptoms of incipient or real psychosis'. Moreover, religious belief and spiritual experiences appear to enhance well-being and assist in the development of psychological health. These are not conclusions that one would generally have found in a textbook of twenty years ago, but they do seem amply justified by the evidence considered. This is a very good overview of the whole field of psychology of religion, and one can only hope that it will be widely read.