An assessment of the development and achievements of the field of Psychological Hermeneutics.

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Qur'anic Hermeneutics argues for the importance of understanding the polysemous nature of the words in the Qur'an and outlines a new method of Qur'anic exegesis called intertextual polysemy. By interweaving science, history and religious studies, Abdulla Galadari introduces a linguistic approach which draws on neuropsychology. This book features examples of intertextual polysemy within the Qur'an, as well as between the Qur'an and the Bible. It provides examples that intimately engage with Christological concepts of the Gospels, in addition to examples of allegorical interpretation through inner-Qur'anic allusions. Galadari reveals how new creative insights are possible, and argues that the Qur'an did not come to denounce the Gospel–which is one of the stumbling blocks between Islam and Christianity–but only to interpret it in its own words.

Renowned subject experts Michele A. Paludi and J. Harold Ellens lead readers through a detailed exploration of the feminist methods, issues, and theoretical frameworks that have made women central, not marginal, to religions around the world. At a conference in 2013, Gloria Steinem noted that religion is the "biggest problem" facing feminism today. In this insightful volume, a team of researchers, psychologists, and religious leaders led by editors Michele A. Paludi and J. Harold Ellens supply their expertise and informed opinions to examine the problems, spur understanding, and pose solutions to the conflicts between religion and women's rights, thereby advocating a global interest in justice and love for women. Examples of subjects addressed include the pro-life/pro-choice debate, feminism in new age thought, and the complex intersections of religion and feminism combined with gender, race, and ethnicity. The contributed work in this unique single-volume book enables a better understanding of how various religions view women—both traditionally and in the modern context—and how feminist thinking has changed the roles of women in some world religions. Readers will come away with clear ideas about how religious cultures can honor feminist values, such as family-friendly workplace policies, reproductive justice, and pay equity, and will be prepared to engage in conversation and constructive debate regarding how faith and feminism are interrelated today.

Relational Integration of Psychology and Christian Theology offers an in-depth, interdisciplinary relational framework that integrates theology, psychology, and clinical and other applications. Building on existing models and debates about the relationship between psychology and theology, the authors provide a much-needed examination of the actual interpersonal dynamics of integration and its implications for training and clinical practice. Case studies from a variety of clinical and educational contexts illustrate and support the authors’ model of relational integration. Using an approach that is sensitive to theological diversity and to social context, this book puts forward a theological and therapeutic framework that values diversity, the repairing of ruptures, and collaboration.

Jonah’s radical and enigmatic nature calls for deeper exploration and engagement. Given its brevity, it is also an ideal text for multiple readings from a range of perspectives that complement, build upon, or challenge and critique each other. In Jonah’s Story, Our Challenge, each chapter brings a different hermeneutical tool to the text, to demonstrate the wealth of fresh readings and new vistas which can open up, and the rich resources for ministry which can come from these multiple readings.

Practice Interpretation takes the everyday social conditions of people as they are described in the Bible and looks at emerging issues that confront today’s interpreters in daily life.

Psychology and theology interface at four levels: theory development, research process, data collection, and clinical operation. At each level they connect in the model of humanness (anthropology) forming and functioning there; and in that model of humanness it is in personality theory that psychology illumes theology and that psychology illumines theology. A theologian who does not take full advantage of the way psychology illumines theology is not serious about the work of theology. A psychologist who does not take full advantage of the way theology illumines psychology is not serious about the field and practice of psychology. Science, Religion, and Health explains in readable style how that interface and mutual illumination works, and why it is crucial for Christian psychotherapists and pastors.

Can drugs be used intelligently and responsibly to expand human consciousness and heighten spirituality? This two-volume work presents objective scientific information and personal stories aiming to answer the question. The first of its kind, this intriguing two-volume set objectively reports on and assesses this modern psycho-social movement in world culture: the constructive medical use of entheogens and related mind-altering substances. Covering the use of substances such as ayahuasca, cannabis, LSD, peyote, and psilocybin, the work seeks to illuminate the topic in a scholarly and scientific fashion so as to lift the typical division between those who are supporters of research and exploration of entheogens and those who are strongly opposed to any such experimentation altogether. The volumes address the history and use of mind-altering drugs in medical research and religious practice in the endeavor to expand and heighten spirituality and the sense of the divine, providing unbiased coverage of the relevant arguments and controversies regarding the subject matter. Chapters include examinations of how psychoactive agents are used to achieve altered states in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism as well as in the rituals of shamanism and other less widely known faiths. This highly readable work will appeal to everyone from high school students to seasoned professors, in both the secular world and in devoted church groups and religious colleges.

Comprising a selection of contemporary state of the art research that focuses on psychological type, religion, and culture, this book can be divided into two particular areas of research. The first section focuses on the religion and psychological type of Church leaders, while the second section reports on Church members, their religion, and their psychological type. The book attests to the importance of Jungian Psychological Type theory in understanding individual differences in religiosity within a variety of samples. Authored by a wide range of international scholars, employing a wide range of measures, among diverse samples and in a variety of different cultures, this research provides an important contribution to current and future research. It facilitates future research work in the area outside of the white, Anglo-Saxon, Anglophone, Christian context on which it has traditionally been focused. This book was originally published as a double special issue of the Mental Health, Religion & Culture journal.

Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all feature ideas about heaven, hell, and afterlife, and these concepts have evolved over time within these religions. This work supplies a detailed and coherent understanding of the broad scope of spiritual thinking in the last 3,000 years within the Abrahamic traditions. Heaven, Hell, and the Afterlife: Eternity in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam provides an all-encompassing examination of historic and contemporary perspectives on afterlife in Western religions. In these three volumes, Judaic, Christian, and Muslim scholars join forces, providing an unprecedented review of their individual faith's traditions. Every significant issue and major theme is discussed; no controversial topic is avoided. From ancient doctrines to modern-day outlooks of conservatives, progressives, and liberals in all three religions, all are analyzed and presented here. The framework of the volumes underscores how the ethics and concepts of eternity in the Western "action" religions contrast with Eastern religions that tend to be characterized as "passive" or "withdrawal" religions in their ethics and their notions of afterlife as absorption within universal spirit, Nirvana, or nonexistence. This work is well-suited for undergraduate and graduate students, general readers interested in religion, and professional scholars, particularly those in fields corollary to religious study.