In December, Templeton Foundation Press will publish Jesus and Psychology edited by Fraser Watts, director of the Psychology and Religion Research Group at the University of Cambridge.
TFP Editor: What would you like readers to take away from this book?
Watts: A fresh understanding of the personal significance of what they read in the Gospels and of the psychological processes that affect how they read them.
TFP Editor: What new contributions does this book present to both biblical studies and psychology fields?
Watts: A more specific focus on a psychological reading of the Gospels (rather than the Bible more generally); a broad approach including: the psychology of Jesus himself, the psychological significance of his teaching and personal encounters, and the psychology of how the Gospels are read and portrayed.
TFP Editor: How do you anticipate the fields of biblical studies and psychology growing in the next ten years?
Watts: There has been a marked growth of interest in recent years, signaled, for example, by Wayne Rollins’ 1999 book, Soul and Psyche: The Bible in Psychological Perspective. So far, psychological approaches to the Bible have lagged behind social science approaches, but I think that will catch up over the next ten years.
TFP Editor: What other research projects is your group at Cambridge undertaking?
Watts: Religious violence: recruitment and de-radicalization; experimental investigation of religious cognition; investigating atheism dialogue between theology and psychology; and the intellectual history of natural theology.
Posted by Templeton Editor 
