The Varieties of Religious Experience

"The Varieties of Religious Experience" by William James is one of the greatest and most readable books ever written on the subject of religion. While James is not making a "case" for belief here, or any case for any particular religious "system", he does study religious experience, trying to get to the bottom of what brings it about and what it means for human beings. Thus, he pays little attention to what we call "organized religion." He spends his time, rather, with the various ways that people have experienced God or the supernatural or the spiritual. James's style is very subtle, ornate, and powerful. Just let yourself soak in it for awhile and then try to learn. His metaphors are stunning enough to be memorable for a lifetime. His discussion of the healthy-minded, the sick soul, and the mystic will enthrall, thrill, and become touchstones in your own religious experience and your own study of religion for the rest of your life. Religion is a living reality for William James. He gives a powerful analysis of what it can, should, and does mean to men and women in the modern world. If you wish to understand modern thought on religion, by the way, you must read James, for much of it springs from his thought. Lastly, James is the kindest thinker who ever put pen to paper. James never chides or derides or condemns. He gently disagrees, looks for the best from every idea and every experience and every person, and lavishes praise on what he finds excellent and meaningful. His thought and writing and philosophical depth and style are an inspiration. Spend some time with one of the greatest thinkers ever. You won't regret it.

William James (1842 -1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism. He was the brother of novelist Henry James and of diarist Alice James. William James was born at the Astor House in New York City. He was the son of Henry James Sr., an independently wealthy and notoriously eccentric Swedenborgian theologian well acquainted with the literary and intellectual elites of his day. The intellectual brilliance of the James family milieu and the remarkable epistolary talents of several of its members have made them a subject of continuing interest to historians, biographers, and critics. James interacted with a wide array of writers and scholars throughout his life, including his godfather Ralph Waldo Emerson, his godson William James Sidis, as well as Charles Sanders Peirce, Bertrand Russell, Josiah Royce, Ernst Mach, John Dewey, Walter Lippmann, Mark Twain, Horatio Alger, Jr., Henri Bergson and Sigmund Freud.