The Varieties of Religious Experience A Study in Human Nature
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~200,000 words · 952 passages
Cite this work
- APAWilliam James. (n.d.). The Varieties of Religious Experience A Study in Human Nature. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/william-james/the-varieties-of-religious-experience-a-study-in-human-nature
- MLAWilliam James. "The Varieties of Religious Experience A Study in Human Nature." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/william-james/the-varieties-of-religious-experience-a-study-in-human-nature.
- ChicagoWilliam James. The Varieties of Religious Experience A Study in Human Nature. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/william-james/the-varieties-of-religious-experience-a-study-in-human-nature.
What it is about
James's Gifford Lectures of 1901-02: a study of conversion, saintliness, mysticism and the sick soul, built from first-hand testimony.
Context and history
The principle of selection is what makes the book. James decides to look only at personal experience — what happens to someone alone — and to set aside institutions, creeds and churches; he admits himself that this leaves a great deal out. He also chooses extreme cases rather than ordinary ones, on the ground that the extreme shows the phenomenon more clearly. He says so plainly, which is why the book can be argued with while knowing exactly what was included and what was not.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Edinburgh in 1901‐1902 By William James Longmans, Green, And Co, New York, London, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras CONTENTS Preface. Lecture I. Religion And Neurology. Lecture II. Circumscription of the Topic. Lecture III. The Reality Of The Unseen. Lectures IV and V. The Religion Of Healthy‐Mindedness. Lectures VI And VII. The Sick Soul. Lecture VIII. The Divided Self, And The Process Of Its Unification. Lecture IX. Conversion. Lecture X. Conversion—Concluded. Lectures XI, XII, And XIII. Saintliness. Lectures XIV And XV. The Value Of Saintliness. Lectures XVI And XVII. Mysticism. Lecture XVIII. Philosophy. Lecture XIX. Other Characteristics. Lecture XX. Conclusions. Postscript. Index. Footnotes [Title Page] To C. P. G. IN FILIAL GRATITUDE AND LOVE PREFACE. This book would never have been written had I not been honored with an appointment as Gifford Lecturer on Natural Religion at the University of Edinburgh. In casting about me for subjects of the two courses of ten lectures each for which I thus became responsible, it seemed to me that the first course might well be a descriptive one on “Man’s Religious Appetites,” and the second a metaphysical one on “Their Satisfaction through Philosophy.” But the unexpected growth of the psychological matter as I came to write it out has resulted in the second subject being postponed entirely, and the description of man’s religious constitution now fills the twenty lectures. In Lecture XX I have suggested rather than stated my own philosophic conclusions, and the reader who desires immediately to know them should turn to pages 511‐519, an