A Scientific Approach to Religious Development: Proposals and a Case Illustration

Some treatments of religious development promote ideals more than they describe actual courses of personal religion. Criticizing two well-known theories, this paper offers a conceptual framework for investigating spiritual evolution scientifically. Based on developmental psychology, the theories in question place everyone, regardless of culture or personality, on a single evolutionary path. By contrast, I argue that the diversity and cultural relativity of personal spiritual striving calls for a pluralistic approach, one recognizing many forms of developed religion. Elaborating, I propose a culturally-neutral definition of religious development and an idiographic method and theoretical style. A case study of a rural black Pentecostal preacher illustrates.