The Varieties Of Religious Experience: A Study In Human Nature
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This classic book, written by a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, discusses some issues that are essential to people interested in psychology concerning religion.Amazon.com Review
“I am neither a theologian, nor a scholar learned in the history of religions, nor an anthropologist. Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed. To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as appealing as any additional of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution. It would seem, therefore, as a psychologist, the natural thing for me would be to invite you to a descriptive survey of persons religious propensities.”
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 vital 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 simple 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 energy of which has not diminished through the subsequent decades.
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I have a degree and some background in psychology, but I couldn’t know a word of what James Joyce was adage or trying to say, it’s so “thick”, and that’s sorry to say the way a lot of the top 100 greatest novels read for me; like Ulysses for example. That book was so thick with aulde Englishe, one would need an interpreter or something. My only thought is, what a bunch of stuffy people, persons literary “scholars”, who voted many of these books. I am reading all the way through the bible, my objective, but I am also reading and enjoying many of the greatest classic novels as an objective, just to do it. But I don’t need to read this book “varieties..” to gain a single grain of wisdom or whatever. I am a born-again God-Man with a most wonderful life experience. Handcuffed in a police car and at the breaking point, I silently cried out from someplace desperately deep inside, “O God… Take me out of this world”, and right to my prayer, God answered. One day hitchhiking, I met a household of “brothers” headed by a middle-aged Japanese couple. The Japanese man questioned me, “If you could have a treasure chest, that every time you opened it, there was something new and [exciting], would you take it?” When I looked into his eyes, they were bright, not as if he had been crying, but glistening as with life and joy. I didn’t answer; in fact I place up a fighting argument the whole time, but I stepped out to the curb, and thought, “Lord Jesus Christ! If you are real, get me a ride.” Nearly straight away, a VW bug pulled over with a young college composition student inside and took me home. Another day, I tested again, “.. If you’re real, please give me a ride.” A car again pulled over, I got in lacking adage a word, and the lady handed me some christian gospel tracts, “..Here. Hand these out to people you meet. Praise the Lord.” Again another day, I tested, “Lord, if you’re real..” I got in lacking adage a word, and the lady exclaimed, “..I just had to pick you up. God told me, ‘Pick up my Child’… ” After that, no more of persons prayers, I just gave thanks and praise to God. My experience of salvation was very special, like nothing I had every thought or felt or [seen] before, and a “brother” in that same house I revisited didn’t say a word. He just stood by my bedside [they let me rest on a bunkbed] enjoying and knowing the very same experience he had loved. Everything I saw as black and white became a spectrum of color; and not just one spectrum of gold or silver, and the joy was just like a passage in the bible “..a well of water springing up..” I once repeated over and over “Praise the Holy Spirit of God. Thanks and praise and honor and like to you O Spirit of God..”; an incredible feeling slowly swept over me, starting at my head and moving all the way to the bottom of my feet, a feeling of powerful invincibility, like I was made of levelheaded iron. I rushed out of the room to be with others; And many more remarkable experiences over the years, not all is fun and play; God has “..many things to show you, but you are not yet ready or able.” I went through many hard times, as life just regularly is; I didn’t say a word about God to anyone, not a word or gesture, but I was surprised when a lady stepped outside at work where I was standing and said, “Oh Lord, you are so excellent, [and we can be so obstinate sometimes].” I would rather read any of Watchman Nee’s or Witness Lee’s works than this dull book “Varieties..”; specifically , The Economy of God, a most vital book, a classic masterpiece; I feel like the luckiest person in the world to have learned it just once. Some of the principles set into the world in that book can only be compared to something like the map to the treasure of Monte Cristo- a hundred fold. My only slight disagreement with Witness Lee is when he gets a small too preachy at times, maybe alluding to things of the spiritual life, “.. the sisters just know [from the inner life], not to buy a certain thing.” Sometimes, Mr. Lee may not have clarified something as well as I reflect he should, but the book is a classic nonetheless. A greater read to me than “Varieties..” would be a compilation of born-again or life experiences; How about several volumes at least. “Varieties of Religious Experience” is an extremely dull read and I reflect a perfect waste of time. Only one [thing] is vital really, one focus, hinted at again and again thoughout the bible: Strive to enter [The Kingdom of God] at the strait gate. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are there already, Mary chose that better part, and few there be that find it. Christ said “I am the Gate.” Witness Lee wrote another “classic”, called Christ Versus Religion.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Yet peiople really gave this trash 5 stars
Goes to show how few people have any religious experience in order to see that James is all blabbering.
Maybe 100 yrs ago James could manage to tickle ears , folks who wanted to hear more than the sunday preacher.
But as we see 100 yrs later its all worthless and empty.
There is so much erroneous babbling comming out of James, it would have been best if James had kept mought shut, as he shows he has no spiritual experience himself.
Avoid like the plague
Paul
June 30,2008
Fot some reason Amazon sensorship has rejected my addition of a new edit.
I wanted to point out how HJ brings up Mohammed as a spiritual sper star, when in fact if you read the bio on Mohammed, the guy was a filthy scoundrel
And HJ brings in Mohammed as a case of authentic spirtuality
HJ’s book is loaded with inconsistencies and falsehoods.
TRASH
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
William James’ masterwork is based on a series of lectures on “natural religion” that he delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 1901. 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.” He is the fantastic enunciator of the thought that all religions are equally valid and valuable, that since they can contain no animating truths, they should be measured merely by their effects on individuals. He is very much incorrect.
He is incorrect in the way that all of the fantastic artists of the Romantic period, from Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats to Picasso, are incorrect, in his emphasis on the individual and his denial of the universal and the absolute. James offers a view of religion as a wholly personal matter, the utility of which lies in its benefits for each person. Like all of his intellectual allies, he had lost faith in universal truth. Indeed, one biographer has suggested that the succession of fleeting term jobs that he held lead him to posit the equal value of all experiences. Because of this crisis of faith, he was unable to make judgments about the truth or value of different religious beliefs or ultimately to judge that any belief system had value beyond the effects on individual believers.
The fantastic challenge that confronts Western man is to reclaim the primacy of Judeo-Christianity from James and his ilk. Genesis, the Ten Commandments and the Gospels are not merely inspirational for individuals, taken together they prompt the aspirations of the species. Mankinds struggle to rise from the sheeplike state of Adam (before the fall) towards eventual Godhood, is the organizing tale that has produced most of our greatest achievements. We should not surrender the centrality of these beliefs to the multiculturalists and moral relativists, no matter how kindly they write.
GRADE: F
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
It is said that William James influenced every fantastic writer of his time, that his work had a deep influence on psychology and investigative thought in that area. What was to become a literary style lacking peer in the modern age was the style of stream of consciousness, the flow of words to represent the stream of thought – a style which originated in the work of William James. So when I approached the Varieties of Religious Experience I expected no less than a riveting and compelling study of human and individual experiences of the divine. I was not disappointed. But I did make the assumption that a book about human and religious experience would at least make a scant mention of scorpions and at the very least select crustaceans. When I had finished flicking through this tome to learn no scorpentine mentions whatsoever I really was disappointed – clogged the book and snuffed my candle at once. Come on, James, what do you take us for? I have to say that this experience took away from my impression of what could have been an brilliant book.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
Sorry to throw off the curve… but this book is long-winded and fleeting on useful thoughts. I say ‘long-winded’ because nearly half of the text consists of citations, most of which are unnecessary. Rather than building opinion, James presents passages that illustrate a point, a feeling, a sentiment, an thought(?). But what is clear is that you’ve just read nearly 600 pages that amount to nothing. No marvel Wittgenstein allegedly read this book over and over again. There’s no point!
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5