Measuring the (Im)Measurable: On the Psycho-Socio-Spiritual Effects of Aesthetic Experiences of Art

This article synthesizes and evaluates the current state of research within the overlapping domains of the psychology of art and the psychology of religion. In doing so, it identifies the most promising avenues that psychological scientists might pursue to operationalize, quantify, and analyze the psycho-social-spiritual effects of art. Framed by the broader discourses of theological and philosophical aesthetics, the discussion is organized according to a series of features that are basic to human processing and, thus, likely to be familiar to psychological researchers in numerous sub-disciplines. We consider these components, in turn, noting in particular the key dimensions of each component that are associated with theological, spiritual, and/or religious forms of cognition and the current state of the empirical literature that underwrites these dimensions. We conclude by proposing a program for experimental research focused on spiritual and religious forms of cognition that are prompted by aesthetic experiences of art.