PSYCHE & SPIRIT sources

Psychology and Spirituality
Two books we will be using and quoting here, each a classic, IMO, of its own, are:
The Human Core of Spirituality, (Mind as Psyche and Spirit) by Robert Helminiak (State University of New York Press, 1966)
and
A Spiritual Strategy for Counseling and Psychology by P. Scott Richards and Allen Bergin (APA, 1997).

Allen Bergin’s name will be familiar to any of us who have been trying to keep up in this interface subfield of Religion and Psychology, as he has been the author in Psychology Abstracts of the Ten Year Reviews of Progress in this field, at least twice, if old memory serves.

Helminiak holds two doctorates in both psychology and theology, and has several books on this interface. His book is highly reviewed. See www.sunypress.edu.

The rich scholarship, inclusive humanity and diversity of application that has gone into both works make them books that can hardly be used enough for our purposes of extending an appreciation of spirituality into the larger arena of psychology, psychotherapy, counseling, health and wellness, and the science of the mind.

Another source, of course, is the Newsletter of APA Division 14, Psychology in Religion. I would hope psychologist - readers in conversations here might have some familiarity with these sources. I am not suggesting they must or that I already do, but these texts cover the basics as well as "the waterfront." Hopefully I will be referring to both texts, by name of author alone.