ABSTRACT
Psychologists have long been interested in religion. The first great psychologist in the United States, William James, was deeply concerned with religious phenomena. His 1902 book The Varieties of Religious Experience remains in print more than a century later and is notable for its focus on the subjective experience of religion. James was especially interested in topics like conversion, mysticism, trance states, saintliness, and repentance. Another American psychologist, G. Stanley Hall, established a journal devoted to the psychology of religion that was published between 1904 and 1915. Hall was a developmental psychologist often credited with “inventing” the concept of adolescence, and he also pioneered the use of the questionnaire as a research tool. He was most interested in the moral and religious training of youth.
