The Psychology of Religious Experience in its Personal and Institutional Dimension (American University Studies)

By Alice Riley

This book employs the basic concept of a religious problem as the necessary condition of religious experience. The connection between different kinds of religious problems and corresponding types of religious experience and behavior is traced.
Religious experience as it occurs institutionally is considered at length. Relationships between experiences and institutions are examined in depth, as they pertain to the origin, expansion and decay of religious institutions. Of particular interest is the examination of present day cults as a symptom of religious decadence, inculding the analysis of why they arise, what their defining characteristics are, and the mechanisms which provide their dynamic. Although the study is undertaken from a naturalistic point of view, it is in no way inimical to religious beliefs already held.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082040862X
• ISBN13: 9780820408620
• Release Date: December 1988
• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Length: 361 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.3" x 6.3"