ABSTRACT
In the early years of the 20th century, William James delivered the lectures that would turn into his classic The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. Within, James argued that the sciences had largely overlooked religion as a topic of legitimate study, despite the fact that religion has played a major role in many, if not most, human lives throughout history. Throughout the remainder of the century, interest in the psychological factors that contribute to people's religious beliefs waxed and waned. However, the past decade or so has brought consistently renewed interest in questions related to the cognitive factors that enable and constrain religious beliefs, as well as the ways that people's religious beliefs in turn affect cognitive processes.
