PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

In this chapter we explore both empirical and conceptual reasons of a dialogue between faith development research and other psychologies. Beginning with the cooperative research on deconversion, two established research programs, one on mysticism in the USA and one on faith development in Germany intermingled. Based upon the first use of the religious-spiritual binary in Germany we found that deconverts were more likely to identify as more spiritual than religious and to be characterized by an openness to experience in contrast to those who remained in tradition. Including mysticism in all of our subsequent research indicated that mysticism was a good predictor of both religious style and was a good measure of spirituality that was developed prior to the binary and independent of faith development research. Mysticism as integral to many psychologies, not simply faith development reveals its importance in facilitating a dialogue in which faith development research enrich other psychology programs. However, to do so it must challenge worldviews that in terms of religious styles and types are inadequate to the task. We apply this dilemma of worldview critique to our own work and that of mainstream and the wisdom of mixed methods research that that cannot be satisfied with only nomothetic generalization that discount the uniqueness of persons.