Clif Hostetler's Reviews > The Varieties of Religious Experience

This book is a compilation of twenty lectures delivered by William James at the University of Edinburg, Scotland between 1901 and 1902. William James is speaking as a psychologist in these lectures so his focus is on examples of human feelings and behavior in response to religious experiences. Much of the text consists of quoting from previously published accounts and his own data collection of these experiences. He connects these accounts with his own commentary and uses this range of examples to identify commonalities shared by different religious traditions.

This book does not address theology, dogma, and institutional history of religious organizations. William James’ method does not allow him to address the existence of God. However he acknowledges that most people who have religious experiences do so under the impression that there is an existence of a “higher power.” Some descriptive terms used to refer to religious experience that I noticed were the following: spiritual excitement, religious rapture, moral enthusiasm, ontological wonder, and cosmic emotion.

Wikipedia has a summary of all the lectures, and I recommend reference to it for a more thorough description of the book’s contents. The things mentioned in this review are simply the several items that caught my attention.

William James makes a distinction between religion and philosophical systems because he argues that religion also has the presence of a positive sentiment that causes the adherent to gladly assents to it. (ref. Lecture II) Another way of describing this is that religion has an emotional dimension not found in moral systems, thus leading to the focus of these lectures which examine manifestations of these emotions.

However, not all of the manifestations of this emotion are very positive when judged from a modern perspective. Some of the reported behaviors of corporeal mortification (a.k.a self torture) to my mind are signs of morbid mental illness. But the author reminds the reader that these reports should be judged within the context of the culture and time they occurred.

Of course not all religious experience is demented. There are several lectures on saintliness and mysticism which tend to be more positive. James suggests that the merits of religious experiences can be judged by their fruits.

The following are some terms used by William James that caught my attention.

Healthy-minded religion—characterized by contentment untroubled by the existence of evil and confident of salvation.

Sick souled religion—considers evil to be unavoidable and an essential part of human existence and must be dealt with through a conversion experience.

Mind-cure movement—believes in the all-saving power of healthy-minded attitudes and their efficacy of courage, hope, and trust.

Once-born religion—is an alternative term referencing healthy-minded religion that does not require a conversion experience.

Twice-born—is an alternative term referencing sick souled religion that requires a conversion experience.

The book finishes with Conclusion and a Postscript which suggests commonalities among the varieties of religious experience. All religious experiences are a consequence of striving toward a relationship with a perceived higher power or system that transcends the physical world. This mental striving creates the variety of psychological symptoms examined and discussed by this book. The emotions thus generated include the full gamut of possibilities including happiness, sadness, fear, and anger.

The following is an excerpt that addresses the commonalities of saintliness (a.k.a. spiritual excitement) found in various religions. It is also an example of the nature of James' writing.

One might therefore be tempted to explain both the humility as to one's self and the charity towards others which characterize spiritual excitement, as results of the all-leveling character of theistic belief. But these affections are certainly not mere derivatives of theism. We find them in Stoicism, in Hinduism, and in Buddhism in the highest possible degree. They harmonize with paternal theism beautifully; but they harmonize with all reflection whatever upon the dependence of mankind on general causes; and we must, I think, consider them not subordinate but coördinate parts of that great complex excitement in the study of which we are engaged. Religious rapture, moral enthusiasm, ontological wonder, cosmic emotion, are all unifying states of mind, in which the sand and grit of the selfhood incline to disappear, and tenderness to rule. The best thing is to describe the condition integrally as a characteristic affection to which our nature is liable, a region in which we find ourselves at home, a sea in which we swim; but not to pretend to explain its parts by deriving them too cleverly from one another. Like love or fear, the faith-state is a natural psychic complex, and carries charity with it by organic consequence. Jubilation is an expansive affection, and all expansive affections are self-forgetful and kindly so long as they endure.
(from Lectures XI, XII, And XIII. Saintliness)

This book may have merit as a record of the state of psychological studies at the beginning of the twentieth century for those interested in the subject. For others it’s a waste of time.

Link to Spoiler No. 1:
(view spoiler)[I have read several books on this subject which in my opinion are more informative than James' book because they include results from recent scientific findings. The following links are to my reviews:
The Spiritual Brain: Science and Religious Experience (Great Courses), by Andrew B. Newberg
God and the Brain: The Physiology of Spiritual Experience, by Andrew B. Newberg
When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God, by T.M. Luhrmann
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Link to Spoiler No. 2:
(view spoiler)[It you are interested in a satirical parity of Varieties of Religious Experience, I recommend the book, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction, by Rebecca Goldstein (link is to my review). In this novel there is a character who writes a scholarly book titled, Varieties of Religious Illusion which contains thirty-six arguments for the existence of God. The allusion to William James' book is obvious.
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