Erfahrung, Identität, Religion: zur psychologischen Analyse individueller Religiosität

This article suggests to use the concepts of "life experience" and "identity" for a psychological analysis of individual religiosity: A hermeneutical concept of life experience sensitizes to the varieties of possible relations between "religion" and "experience". A (pre-reflexive, narrative and reflexive) concept of identity enables us to analyse the continuities and coherences of religious orientations in the context of life history. Relying on these concepts of experience and identity the life story of a Christian-Reformed Dutchman who joined Hare Krishna has been analysed in order to demonstrate the usefulness of this analytical perspective.