Advanced Methodologies: in the Scientific Study of Religion and Spirituality

During much of twentieth century, social scientists were predicting that religious would gradually diminish and disappear with the spread of science, education movements in many parts of the world, a source of both hope and concern in the twenty-first century. Alongside this trend, the last decade saw a resurgence of interest in the scientific study of religious and spiritual phenomena among researchers in diverse fields. Psychology, sociology ,and anthropology still play central roles in such studies, but these disciplines are now supplemented by economics, epidemiology, evolutionary psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and behavioral genetics, among others.