著者

今野 啓介

出版者

東京大学文学部宗教学研究室

雑誌

東京大学宗教学年報 (ISSN:02896400)

巻号頁・発行日

no.31, pp.143-159, 2013

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論文/ArticlesThis article focuses on the treatment of religion by humanistic psychologists, especially Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), the founding father of that branch of psychology. Humanistic psychology is known as "the third force" in psychology in the mid-twentieth century, after psycho-analysis and behaviorism. This branch of psychology is distinguished from the other two by its focus on healthy-minded humans and their latent talents. Humanistic psychology also discusses religion more vigorously than before, which shall be a major focus of this article. Though I mainly discuss Maslow's theories, I also try to clarify the differences between his theories and those of two other humanistic psychologists, Gordon Allport and Erich Fromm. As a result, I conclude that Maslow began to recognize the role of religion after he developed his famous theory on "peak experience" for the sake of increasing this theory's versatility. While Allport and Fromm see religion as the most important psychological factor, Maslow regards it as only a secondary factor. Moreover, as Wakimoto (1967) and Nishihira (2002) point out, Maslow considers only the internal manifestation of religiosity and almost ignores the role of organized religion. Since his references to religion are too weak to claim his work to be a theory of religion, this article suggests that Maslow's arguments about religion are subordinate to his main theory on peak experience.