| As with any creative work, we had a mix of professional and personal reasons for working together to create this handbook. The compelling scholarly reason was that the time for it had come. From time to time, in any area of inquiry, the accumulated knowledge progresses to such a degree that a new level of maturity becomes identifiable. The psychology of religion is at this stage now. We see it reflected in the nature of the research questions asked, the range of topics investigated, the sophistication of the research methods used, the adequacy of the theoretical advancements to account for and integrate the increasing body of data, and the connections between research in the psychology of religion and scholarship in other areas of psychology and allied fields. Throughout this volume, the contributors document myriad indicators that the psychology of religion as a field has reached this level of maturity. One indicator is that many of our colleagues now call this area of research “the psychology of religion and spirituality.” We hope this book firmly documents this maturity and serves to guide research and theory in this field to its next level of development. |