Reviews the psychology of religion and radicalization.
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Suggests middle ground between societal and individual levels of analysis.
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Shows how appraisal of societal conditions plays a role in religious radicalization.
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Redemption by means of radical beliefs serves as important social coping mechanism.
In this article, we review the psychology of religion and radicalization. In doing so, we note that both macro-level approaches (that study structural conditions in society) and micro-level approaches (that focus on psychological coping and personal appraisal of individual conditions) fail to adequately explain radical behavior of members of extreme religious groups. Instead, we propose that meso-level approaches best explain religious radicalization. These meso-level approaches explain how members of extreme religious groups appraise societal conditions and find redemption in radical beliefs. In particular, we argue for a more in-depth examination of the historical and societal contexts in which various radicalization processes take place and narratives of radical redemption hold sway.
