Rebuilding Fences and Opening Gates: Vergote on the Psychology of Religion

This article questions Vergote's assertions about the boundaries inherent in the psychology of religion. Although it agrees that all individuals, in interacting with religious symbols, do so within the context of a public, historic tradition, any attempt to delimit psychological investigation of those experiences may ignore the breadth of the personal meanings that permeate those reactions. Furthermore, Vergote's discounting of the process of faith by affirming the importance of belief content would seem to set up boundaries that should better be construed as gates. Finally, it is suggested that Vergote's negative reaction to attempts by psychologists to probe the origins of religion ignores the inseparable human/God nature of all faith.