Mystical EEs/EHEs Record Type: Review   ID: 203
Handbook of Religious Experience Hood, Ralph W., Jr.
The author, who is a well-known researcher in the psychology of religious experience, compiled this scholarly compendium "in response to the need for a detailed summary of what social scientists understand about religious experience. For purposes of the book religious experience is defined as "the divine encountered in experience," or "in a sense of the transcendent" (p. 4). In an interesting Foreword, Hood relates the difficulties involved in deciding on the areas to include and which scholars should write each chapter. The finished work consists of 24 chapters arranged in 7 parts: Faith Traditions and Religious Experience (chapters on Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism); The Broader Context of Religious Experience (three chapters very relevant to exceptional human experience, on religious experience and philosophy, sociological context, and phenomenological psychology); Depth Psychologies and Religious Experience (3 chapters, one each on Freudian theory, Jungian theory, and object relations theory; Major Psychological Orientation and Religious Experience (4 chapters on developmental, cognitive, affective, and behavioral theory and religious experience; Specific Psychological Perspectives and Religious Experience (a chapter each on role theory, attribution theory, and attachment theory); Specialty Concerns and Religious Experience (the body, transpersonal theory and feminist theory); and the last part, which has a chapter each on Education and Facilitation of Religious Experience (the chapter on facilitation is by Hood himself). As mystical experience in its many forms is a major category of exceptional human experience, this volume would serve as an important guide to research approaches, theory, and findings, some of which could be applicable to other EHEs as well.
Publisher Information:	Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press, 1995. Chap. bibl; Name index: 603-619; Subject index: 621-661; 8 tables

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