Psychological Perspectives on Religious Education: An Individual Differences Approach

In this monograph Leslie J. Francis reviews and assesses the contributions made by the individual differences tradition of psychology over the past 50 years to research in religious education. In this context religious education is conceived broadly to embrace what takes place in schools, within religious communities, and within households across the age span. Topics include: • the centrality of the attitudinal dimension of religion; • the place of personality in the individual differences tradition; • sex as a core individual difference in religion; • the consequences of individual differences in religious affect; • the role of church schools and the role of the family in religious nurture; • the factors that account for individual differences in attitude toward religious diversity; • the relevance of the individual differences tradition for adult religious education; • the implications of the individual differences tradition for biblical hermeneutics and discipleship learning.