Psychological views of religious experiences

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Hey, having problems understanding and answering the following essay question. Could anyone give me any ideas or help please?

Select a religious practice or experience or a question of theological significance and consider how psychological theories (by one of the psychologists listed below) or findings may contribute to its understanding.

Do so by first describing how you imagine two of the psychological thinkers/ researchers whom you have encountered (either through class or your previous coursework) may explain or interpret the phenomenon you selected. Then compare the two explanations/interpretations and express your own view on the relative contribution of each.

Please note:

(a) I do not expect you to seek specific references by these thinkers/researchers on the phenomenon that you have selected, but you should infer how they would explain or interpret the phenomenon based on what you know and have read.

(b) Presenting a good psychological description may require some elaboration of the religious phenomenon.

Psychologists we have looked at in class are:
- Scheler
- William James
- Freud
- Meissner
- Frum

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm really stumped at the moment.

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@Jazzle,

I'll say only this:

You will probably get more insight into the question by reading William James than any of the others that your prof. has suggested. His Varieties of Religious Experience is a clearly psychological approach to the problem of religion.

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@Jazzle,

Be careful around Freud, some of the external agenda juxtapositions of his work fail to reason ethically with mass published receptions results.

To answer your question though, I think personally, you would find some success in researching the nature of 'visions' IE: virgin mary.... Then selecting key factor assertions from the work/s you choose and linking it to hallucinations, with noted alternates as cited 'plausible' under a God.

What would be astounding however is an open ended work which left people with a new concept they had not heard before, that choice is left with the reader. That may not mean a 'lie' it may mean, a slightly different interpretation.

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@Jazzle,

You know psychology is a study, not a science. Studies consider hypothesis as factual--in many cases you have to simultaneously jump anywhere between John Stuart Mill and Edgar Cayce.

Rap

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Psychological views of religious experiences

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