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Feliks's Reviews > The Varieties of Religious Experience
The Varieties of Religious Experience
by
by
Feliks's review
bookshelves: criticism
May 19, 2017
bookshelves: criticism
Read 2 times. Last read May 11, 2017 to June 28, 2017.
Lame Goodreads tells me I'm "reading this for the 2nd time". Nope. My 'to read' shelf is simply part of my 'read' shelves because I don't want Amazon monitoring my upcoming reading choices. Goodreads has really gone to the dogs with all these newfangled tracking options. Leave things alone! Stop adding bells-and-whistles to everything!
Anyway so, this is my first time reading William James (or any of the James family) and it's a superb book. Falling aptly in line with my recursive taste for cerebral topics and elegant, belle Époque non-fiction prose. Refreshing, as always. James' peers--his fellow-scholars--the male readers--contemporary to William James in his own era--my goodness, what a world that must have been. Imagine living in a culture where writing of this high calibre was a commonplace. Studious and humble; is James in this work; earnest but at the same time, measured.
He launches himself at a formidable topic in this survey of the religious mindset and what I admire about his style most (besides the blazing erudition on display) is his extreme politeness in the treatment of subject matter which to some, might be inflammatory.
But James will have none of it. He goes out of his way to prevent such sensitivity, in advance. He is gentle and tender at every turn; giving each possible point-of-view fair consideration in succession, as he isolates the target of his wonderful scrutiny.
Nevertheless, this is not easy reading; I would not guess that most will find it so. It is rife with quoted passages from clerics, cardinals, saints; theologians; doctors of the church.
The book deals in exhaustive fashion with the history of Christian thought, but James also treats spirituality in general down throughout the ages as found throughout global culture. Primitive peoples; the various pantheons of the Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, & Romans.
Imans, ju-ju-men, Talmudists, prophets, seers, ascetics, mystics, and shamans all have their say in James' compenduium, as dictated by the various points he wishes to make. Even adverse philosophers and atheists have their appearance on his stage.
Overall, James has a wonderfully crisp, lucid and clarifying power of thought. A towering achievement of intellectualism. Highly recommended if beautiful language and rational methodology makes you marvel.
This is the kind of book which shows up clumsy moderns like Richard Dawkins for the piddlers they are.
Anyway so, this is my first time reading William James (or any of the James family) and it's a superb book. Falling aptly in line with my recursive taste for cerebral topics and elegant, belle Époque non-fiction prose. Refreshing, as always. James' peers--his fellow-scholars--the male readers--contemporary to William James in his own era--my goodness, what a world that must have been. Imagine living in a culture where writing of this high calibre was a commonplace. Studious and humble; is James in this work; earnest but at the same time, measured.
He launches himself at a formidable topic in this survey of the religious mindset and what I admire about his style most (besides the blazing erudition on display) is his extreme politeness in the treatment of subject matter which to some, might be inflammatory.
But James will have none of it. He goes out of his way to prevent such sensitivity, in advance. He is gentle and tender at every turn; giving each possible point-of-view fair consideration in succession, as he isolates the target of his wonderful scrutiny.
Nevertheless, this is not easy reading; I would not guess that most will find it so. It is rife with quoted passages from clerics, cardinals, saints; theologians; doctors of the church.
The book deals in exhaustive fashion with the history of Christian thought, but James also treats spirituality in general down throughout the ages as found throughout global culture. Primitive peoples; the various pantheons of the Sumerians, Egyptians, Greeks, & Romans.
Imans, ju-ju-men, Talmudists, prophets, seers, ascetics, mystics, and shamans all have their say in James' compenduium, as dictated by the various points he wishes to make. Even adverse philosophers and atheists have their appearance on his stage.
Overall, James has a wonderfully crisp, lucid and clarifying power of thought. A towering achievement of intellectualism. Highly recommended if beautiful language and rational methodology makes you marvel.
This is the kind of book which shows up clumsy moderns like Richard Dawkins for the piddlers they are.
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Quotes Feliks Liked
“Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.”
― The Varieties of Religious Experience
― The Varieties of Religious Experience
“It does not follow, because our ancestors made so many errors of fact and mixed them with their religion, that we should therefore leave off being religious at all. By being religious we establish ourselves in possession of ultimate reality at the only points at which reality is given us to guard. Our responsible concern is with our private destiny, after all.”
― The Varieties of Religious Experience
― The Varieties of Religious Experience
“Contempt for one's own comrades, for the troops of the enemy, and, above all, fierce contempt for one's own person, are what war demands of everyone. Far better is it for an army to be too savage, too cruel, too barbarous, than to possess too much sentimentality and human reasonableness.”
― The Varieties of Religious Experience
― The Varieties of Religious Experience
“Science” in many minds is genuinely taking the place of a religion. Where this is so, the scientist treats the “Laws of Nature” as objective facts to be revered.”
― The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
― The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
“Phrases of neatness, cosiness, and comfort can never be an answer to the sphinx's riddle.”
― Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature
― Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study in Human Nature
“We must judge the tree by its fruit. The best fruits of the religious experience are the best things history has to offer. The highest flights of charity, devotion, trust, patience, and bravery to which the wings of human nature have spread themselves, have all been flown for religious ideals.”
― The Varieties of Religious Experience
― The Varieties of Religious Experience
Reading Progress
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Glenn
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Jun 29, 2017 05:03AM
Thanks again for this, sir. I reread your review and enjoyed each of your insights. I'll have to revisit WJ at some point.
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