The Varieties of Religious Experience - Softcover

James, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0980060540 ISBN 13: 9780980060546

Publisher: Megalodon Entertainment LLC., 2008

Synopsis

The Varieties of Religious Experience came about as the result of William James's legendary lecture series at The University of Edinburgh. It consisted of 20 Lectures, 2 courses of 10 lectures each. In this series, James examines in detail the nature of religion, expanding on pragmatism in the process. As part of the canon of modern philosophy and psychology, these lectures are both classic and relevant.

About this title

Review

One of the seminal works of philosophy and theology. (Catholic Herald)

From the Back Cover

When William James went to the University of Edinburgh in 1901 to deliver a series of lectures on "natural religion," he defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine." Considering religion, then, not as it is defined by--or takes place in--the churches, but as it is felt in everyday life, he undertook a project that, upon completion, stands not only as one of the most important texts on psychology ever written, not only as a vitally serious contemplation of spirituality, but for many critics one of the best works of nonfiction written in the 20th century. Reading The Varieties of Religious Experience, it is easy to see why. Applying his analytic clarity to religious accounts from a variety of sources, James elaborates a pluralistic framework in which "the divine can mean no single quality, it must mean a group of qualities, by being champions of which in alternation, different men may all find worthy missions." It's an intellectual call for serious religious tolerance--indeed, respect--the vitality of which has not diminished through the subsequent decades.

Edition details

• Publisher: Megalodon Entertainment LLC.
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0980060540
• ISBN 13: 9780980060546
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 452