At a time when religious fundamentalism is having a huge impact upon the world, this book helps us to understand how people acquire, conceptualize and practice religion at both personal and social levels. Drawing on relevant research material, author David Fontana explores the effects of religious and spiritual belief on behavior, and on physical and psychological health. He outlines the various approaches to religious and spiritual experience, and examines the different forms such experience takes. He looks at religious and spiritual practices, such as prayer, meditation and ritual, and links religion and spirituality to the major psychological theories.This reader-friendly book will be of interest to clergy, professional psychologists, and students and teachers of psychology and religion, as well as to the general public.