The Joy of Religion
Exploring the Nature of Pleasure in Spiritual Life

Using a psychological and historical approach, the book describes the ways that religions deepen and prolong feelings of wellbeing.

Ariel Glucklich (Author)

9781108486422, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 January 2020

262 pages, 1 b/w illus. 1 map 1 table
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.49 kg

All religions describe spiritual experience as pleasant, and the goal of the religious pursuit as profoundly joyful. But many religions also condemn sensory pleasures and the desire for objects of pleasure. In this book, Ariel Glucklich resolves this apparent contradiction by showing how religious practices that instill self-control and discipline transform one type of pleasure into the pleasures of mastery and play. Using historical data and psychological analysis, he details how the rituals, mystical practices, moral teachings, and sacred texts of the world's religions act as psychological instruments that induce well-being. Glucklich also shows that in promoting joy and pleasure, religion also strengthens social bonds and enhances an individual's pursuit of meaning.

Introduction: religion, pleasure and evolution
1. The variety and mystery of religious pleasure
2. The nature and cultivation of complex pleasure
3. The discovery of mastery pleasure
4. Philo's mastery, Plotinus' play and the mystic's joy
5. Pleasure, play and magical thinking
6. Church-sect theory and pleasure
7. Narratives and rituals of pleasure
8. A scholar's Shabbat in central Virginia
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Religious groups: social & cultural aspects [JFSR], Spirituality & religious experience [HRLK], History of religion [HRAX], Religious issues & debates [HRAM]