The Varieties of Religious Experience

by JAMES, WILLIAM

• ISBN13: 9780679640110
• ISBN10: 0679640118
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1999-05-11
• Publisher: Modern Library

Summary

The Varieties of Religious Experiencewas an immediate bestseller upon its publication in June 1902. Reflecting the pluralistic views of psychologist turned philosopher William James, it posits that individual religious experiences, rather than the tenets of organized religions, form the backbone of religious life. James's discussion of conversion, repentance, mysticism, and hope of reward and fears of punishment in the hereafteras well as his observations on the religious experiences of such diverse thinkers as Voltaire, Emerson, Luther, and othersall support his thesis. Walter Houston Clark inPsychology Todaydeemed it "the most notable of all books in the field of the psychology of religion."

Author Biography

<b>William James</b> (1842–1910), brother of writer Henry James, was born in New York and studied medicine at Harvard, where he taught from 1872; James continued on to write books and become one of the most renowned psychologist-philosophers in the Western world. His other famous works include <i>Principles of Psychology</i> (1890) and <i>Pragmatism</i> (1907).

Table of Contents

Biographical Note
Preface
Religion and Neurology	p. 3
Circumscription of the Topic	p. 31
The Reality of the Unseen	p. 61
The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness	p. 90
The Sick Soul	p. 144
The Divided Self, and the Process of its Unification	p. 185
Conversion	p. 210
Conversion - Concluded	p. 240
Saintliness	p. 285
The Value of Saintliness	p. 358
Mysticism	p. 413
Philosophy	p. 469
Other Characteristics	p. 499
Conclusions	p. 528
Postscript	p. 565
Commentary	p. 573
Index	p. 591
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