The Varieties Of Religious Experience: A Study In Human Nature - Softcover

James, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1619491168 ISBN 13: 9781619491168

Publisher: Trinity Press, 2011

Synopsis

This notable and influential study of the psychology of religion asserts that instead of the tenants of organized religion, we should look to the individual religious experiences as the foundations of religious life. As such, James makes his case with the religious accounts of various well-known thinkers throughout history, applying an analytic clarity to their stories and developing a pluralistic framework that defines the divine as a group of, rather than one single, qualities. The Varieties of Religious Experience presents readers with an intellectual, rather than emotional, call for both religious tolerance and respect.

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: Trinity Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1619491168
• ISBN 13: 9781619491168
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 284