Philosophy of ReligionDr Tom Kerns
Philosophy of Religion
Introduction to
Gordon Allport's
The Individual and His Religion
(1950)
Gordon Allport (1897-1967), was professor of Psychology at Harvard for many years, and President of the American Psychological Association for a time. He is also the famous author of many truly groundbreaking books, including one on the The Nature of Prejudice (1954), Pattern and Growth in Personality (1965), a beautiful little classic about using personal documents, diaries, etc in psychotherapy, titled Letters from Jenny (1965), and others, including this one on the psychology of religion. Allport's writing is simple, clear, and insightful, so it is no wonder that his work has been so influential.
This book, The Individual and His Religion, articulates the thesis that just as people can grow and mature in other areas of their lives -- for example, people can become more emotionally mature as they get older (or not), can become more socially mature, in their ability to relate well to others (or not), can become more intellectually mature (or not), etc -- so also can people become more mature in their religious development (or not).
This book is important enough that it would have deserved to be assigned as required reading this quarter, but it's been out of print for a while now so isn't available. So instead you'll be reading just one short chapter from it (19 pages, which I will place in the classroom) to get the sense of Allport's general thesis, viz., that there are immature forms of religious belief and there are more mature forms of religious belief.
You will be reading chapter II, on the stages of religious development from childhood through young adulthood. What Allport terms "mature religion" would be explored more fully in his following chapters. If this is of interest, you could explore the idea more fully by exploring the holdings in one of your local libraries.
p.s. My apologies for the "His" in the title of this book, and for the all the male pronouns throughout. This is just the way books in the 1950s (and prior to that) were written.
Questions:
- While you are reading this chapter, please feel free to post passages from it into the classroom (week 6), asking your classmates about, or commenting on, the passage you've quoted. That is, it is not necessary to fully complete the reading before you start your discussion in the classroom.
- Post your answers to Study Questions in the SQs folder and your answers to Discussion Questions into the classroom folder for week 6.
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