Our theoretical work on religious cognition has taken its lead
from the general theoretical developments in cognitive psychology
that have underpinned the experimental investigation of human
cognition in recent years. We have noted that a range of
theories concerned with cognitive aspects of emotion and emotional
disorders assume that multi-level theories are required to do
justice to the phenomena.
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The main focus of our work has been on identifying the cognitive
mechanisms that underpin fundamentalism in the three Abrahamic
traditions and the socio-cultural conditions that give rise to it.
We have developed the first empirically-tested, group-based
intervention that serves to prevent religious violence and
ideological extremism in the form of multimedia educational
materials geared to increase the cognitive complexity with which
young people understand the social world.
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more...
Human spiritual qualities which have long
been the subject of religious and philosophical discussion are
becoming popular in positive psychology. This is a field that
diverts attention away from psychopathology to embrace a more
‘positive’ view of human nature and its strengths. Rather than
positive psychology replacing older fields of intellectual enquiry
we believe it should be pursued in dialogue with them.
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Though the main focus of the group is on
psychology, we have an on-going series of projects relating
theology to science more generally. However, our work in this are
is somewhat scattered, and we do not pretend that we have a single
and coherent research strategy in this area. It may therefore we
best to indicate some of the main strands of work.
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The dialogue between theology and psychology
is central to the work of the research group. A key part of
our initial effort in this area has been methodological, and we
have tried to establish clear general principles to guide our work.
One basic assumption is that each discipline should remain
distinct; each can be coordinated with the other without either
being reduced to it.
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The aim of projects under this aegis is to
enable the Church to make better use of psychology in order to
resource a wide range of ministries. Recognising that the Church in
the UK is relatively under-resourced psychologically, across its
training of ministers, teaching and pastoral praxis, the Psychology
and Christianity Project was publicly launched in April 1998 with a
consultation among UK leaders working in the interface of
psychology, theology, pastoral theology, and church leadership,
held at St George’s House, Windsor Castle.
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