Religion and religiosity as cultural phenomena: from ontological reductionism to acknowledgment of plurality

After reminding some of the historical relationships between psychology and religion, this chapter explains what is usually understood by psychology of religion in a proper sense, differentiating it from neighboring fields such as ‘psychology and religion’ and ‘pastoral psychology.’ The chapter continues to point out why it is more appropriate to speak of ‘psychologies of religions’ than of ‘psychology of religion,’ discussing in which sense one could speak about progress in psychological reasoning about religion. A typology for the diverse kinds of research in the psychology of religion is proposed, and cultural psychological approaches to the study of religion are shown to be indispensable for any comprehensive psychological analysis of religious phenomena and states of affairs