The Varieties of Religious Experience - Contents Dedication and Preface by William James Lyrics

To
E.P.G.
IN FILIAL GRATITUDE AND LOVE




CONTENTS

LECTURE I: RELIGION AND NEUROLOGY
Introduction: the course is not anthropological, but deals with
personal documents-- Questions of fact and questions of value-- In
point of fact, the religious are often neurotic-- Criticism of medical
materialism, which condemns religion on that account-- Theory that
religion has a sexual origin refuted-- All states of mind are neurally
conditioned-- Their significance must be tested not by their origin but
by the value of their fruits-- Three criteria of value; origin useless
as a criterion-- Advantages of the psychopathic temperament when a
superior intellect goes with it--especially for the religious life.

LECTURE II: CIRCUMSCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC
Futility of simple definitions of religion-- No one specific "religious
sentiment"-- Institutional and personal religion-- We confine ourselves
to the personal branch-- Definition of religion for the purpose of
these lectures-- Meaning of the term "divine"-- The divine is what
prompts SOLEMN reactions-- Impossible to make our definitions sharp--
We must study the more extreme cases-- Two ways of accepting the
universe-- Religion is more enthusiastic than philosophy-- Its
characteristic is enthusiasm in solemn emotion-- Its ability to
overcome unhappiness-- Need of such a faculty from the biological point
of view.


LECTURE III: THE REALITY OF THE UNSEEN
Percepts versus abstract concepts-- Influence of the latter on belief--
Kant's theological Ideas-- We have a sense of reality other than that
given by the special senses-- Examples of "sense of presence"-- The
feeling of unreality-- Sense of a divine presence: examples-- Mystical
experiences: examples-- Other cases of sense of God's presence--
Convincingness of unreasoned experience-- Inferiority of rationalism in
establishing belief-- Either enthusiasm or solemnity may preponderate
in the religious attitude of individuals.


LECTURES IV AND V: THE RELIGION OF HEALTHY--MINDEDNESS
Happiness is man's chief concern-- "Once-born" and "twice-born"
characters-- Walt Whitman-- Mixed nature of Greek feeling-- Systematic
healthy-mindedness-- Its reasonableness-- Liberal Christianity shows
it-- Optimism as encouraged by Popular Science-- The "Mind-cure"
movement-- Its creed-- Cases-- Its doctrine of evil-- Its analogy to
Lutheran theology-- Salvation by relaxation-- Its methods: suggestion--
meditation-- "recollection"-- verification-- Diversity of possible
schemes of adaptation to the universe-- APPENDIX: TWO mind-cure cases.

LECTURES VI AND VII: THE SICK SOUL
Healthy-mindedness and repentance-- Essential pluralism of the
healthy-minded philosophy-- Morbid-mindedness: its two degrees--The
pain-threshold varies in individuals-- Insecurity of natural goods--
Failure, or vain success of every life-- Pessimism of all pure
naturalism-- Hopelessness of Greek and Roman view-- Pathological
unhappiness-- "Anhedonia"-- Querulous melancholy-- Vital zest is a pure
gift-- Loss of it makes physical world look different-- Tolstoy--
Bunyan-- Alline-- Morbid fear-- Such cases need a supernatural religion
for relief-- Antagonism of healthy-mindedness and morbidness-- The
problem of evil cannot be escaped.


LECTURE VIII: THE DIVIDED SELF, AND THE PROCESS OF ITS UNIFICATION
Heterogeneous personality--Character gradually attains unity--Examples
of divided self--The unity attained need not be religious--"Counter
conversion" cases--Other cases--Gradual and sudden
unification--Tolstoy's recovery--Bunyan's.


LECTURE IX: CONVERSION
Case of Stephen Bradley--The psychology of character-changes--
Emotional excitements make new centres of personal energy-- Schematic
ways of representing this-- Starbuck likens conversion to normal moral
ripening-- Leuba's ideas-- Seemingly unconvertible persons-- Two types
of conversion-- Subconscious incubation of motives-- Self-surrender--
Its importance in religious history-- Cases.

LECTURE X: CONVERSION--concluded
Cases of sudden conversion-- Is suddenness essential?-- No, it depends
on psychological idiosyncrasy-- Proved existence of transmarginal, or
subliminal, consciousness-- "Automatisms"-- Instantaneous conversions
seem due to the possession of an active subconscious self by the
subject-- The value of conversion depends not on the process, but on
the fruits-- These are not superior in sudden conversion-- Professor
Coe's views-- Sanctification as a result-- Our psychological account
does not exclude direct presence of the Deity-- Sense of higher
control-- Relations of the emotional "faith-state" to intellectual
beliefs-- Leuba quoted-- Characteristics of the faith-state: sense of
truth; the world appears new-- Sensory and motor automatisms--
Permanency of conversions.


LECTURES XI, XII, AND XIII: SAINTLINESS
Sainte-Beuve on the State of Grace-- Types of character as due to the
balance of impulses and inhibitions-- Sovereign excitements--
Irascibility-- Effects of higher excitement in general-- The saintly
life is ruled by spiritual excitement-- This may annul sensual impulses
permanently-- Probable subconscious influences involved-- Mechanical
scheme for representing permanent alteration in character--
Characteristics of saintliness-- Sense of reality of a higher power--
Peace of mind, charity-- Equanimity, fortitude, etc.-- Connection of
this with relaxation-- Purity of life-- Asceticism-- Obedience--
Poverty-- The sentiments of democracy and of humanity-- General effects
of higher excitements.


LECTURES XIV AND XV: THE VALUE OF SAINTLINESS
It must be tested by the human value of its fruits-- The reality of the
God must, however, also be judged-- "Unfit" religions get eliminated by
"experience"-- Empiricism is not skepticism-- Individual and tribal
religion-- Loneliness of religious originators-- Corruption follows
success-- Extravagances-- Excessive devoutness, as fanaticism-- As
theopathic absorption-- Excessive purity-- Excessive charity-- The
perfect man is adapted only to the perfect environment-- Saints are
leavens-- Excesses of asceticism-- Asceticism symbolically stands for
the heroic life-- Militarism and voluntary poverty as possible
equivalents-- Pros and cons of the saintly character-- Saints versus
"strong" men-- Their social function must be considered-- Abstractly
the saint is the highest type, but in the present environment it may
fail, so we make ourselves saints at our peril-- The question of
theological truth.


LECTURES XVI AND XVII: MYSTICISM
Mysticism defined-- Four marks of mystic states-- They form a distinct
region of consciousness-- Examples of their lower grades-- Mysticism
and alcohol-- "The anaesthetic revelation"-- Religious mysticism--
Aspects of Nature-- Consciousness of God-- "Cosmic consciousness"--
Yoga-- Buddhistic mysticism-- Sufism-- Christian mystics-- Their sense
of revelation-- Tonic effects of mystic states-- They describe by
negatives-- Sense of union with the Absolute-- Mysticism and music--
Three conclusions-- (1) Mystical states carry authority for him who has
them-- (2) But for no one else-- (3) Nevertheless, they break down the
exclusive authority of rationalistic states-- They strengthen monistic
and optimistic hypotheses.


LECTURE XVIII: PHILOSOPHY
Primacy of feeling in religion, philosophy being a secondary function--
Intellectualism professes to escape objective standards in her
theological constructions-- "Dogmatic theology"-- Criticism of its
account of God's attributes-- "Pragmatism" as a test of the value of
conceptions-- God's metaphysical attributes have no practical
significance-- His moral attributes are proved by bad arguments;
collapse of systematic theology-- Does transcendental idealism fare
better? Its principles-- Quotations from John Caird-- They are good as
restatements of religious experience, but uncoercive as reasoned
proof-- What philosophy CAN do for religion by transforming herself
into "science of religions."


LECTURE XIX: OTHER CHARACTERISTICS
Aesthetic elements in religion--Contrast of Catholicism and
Protestantism-- Sacrifice and Confession-- Prayer-- Religion holds that
spiritual work is really effected in prayer-- Three degrees of opinion
as to what is effected-- First degree-- Second degree-- Third degree--
Automatisms, their frequency among religious leaders-- Jewish cases--
Mohammed-- Joseph Smith-- Religion and the subconscious region in
general.


LECTURE XX: CONCLUSIONS
Summary of religious characteristics-- Men's religions need not be
identical-- "The science of religions" can only suggest, not proclaims
a religious creed-- Is religion a "survival" of primitive thought?--
Modern science rules out the concept of personality-- Anthropomorphism
and belief in the personal characterized pre-scientific thought--
Personal forces are real, in spite of this-- Scientific objects are
abstractions, only individualized experiences are concrete-- Religion
holds by the concrete-- Primarily religion is a biological reaction--
Its simplest terms are an uneasiness and a deliverance; description of
the deliverance-- Question of the reality of the higher power-- The
author's hypotheses: 1. The subconscious self as intermediating between
nature and the higher region-- 2. The higher region, or "God"-- 3. He
produces real effects in nature.


POSTSCRIPT
Philosophic position of the present work defined as piecemeal
supernaturalism-- Criticism of universalistic supernaturalism--
Different principles must occasion differences in fact-- What
differences in fact can God's existence occasion?-- The question of
immortality-- Question of God's uniqueness and infinity: religious
experience does not settle this question in the affirmative-- The
pluralistic hypothesis is more conformed to common sense.






PREFACE

This book would never have been written had I not been honored with an
appointment as Gifford Lecturer on Natural Religion at the University
of Edinburgh. In casting about me for subjects of the two courses of
ten lectures each for which I thus became responsible, it seemed to me
that the first course might well be a descriptive one on "Man's
Religious Appetites," and the second a metaphysical one on "Their
Satisfaction through Philosophy." But the unexpected growth of the
psychological matter as I came to write it out has resulted in the
second subject being postponed entirely, and the description of man's
religious constitution now fills the twenty lectures. In Lecture XX I
have suggested rather than stated my own philosophic conclusions, and
the reader who desires immediately to know them should turn to pages
501-509, and to the "Postscript" of the book. I hope to be able at some
later day to express them in more explicit form.

In my belief that a large acquaintance with particulars often makes us
wiser than the possession of abstract formulas, however deep, I have
loaded the lectures with concrete examples, and I have chosen these
among the extremer expressions of the religious temperament. To some
readers I may consequently seem, before they get beyond the middle of
the book, to offer a caricature of the subject. Such convulsions of
piety, they will say, are not sane. If, however, they will have the
patience to read to the end, I believe that this unfavorable impression
will disappear; for I there combine the religious impulses with other
principles of common sense which serve as correctives of exaggeration,
and allow the individual reader to draw as moderate conclusions as he
will.

My thanks for help in writing these lectures are due to Edwin D.
Starbuck, of Stanford University, who made over to me his large
collection of manuscript material; to Henry W. Rankin, of East
Northfield, a friend unseen but proved, to whom I owe precious
information; to Theodore Flournoy, of Geneva, to Canning Schiller of
Oxford, and to my colleague Benjamin Rand, for documents; to my
colleague Dickinson S. Miller, and to my friends, Thomas Wren Ward, of
New York, and Wincenty Lutoslawski, late of Cracow, for important
suggestions and advice. Finally, to conversations with the lamented
Thomas Davidson and to the use of his books, at Glenmore, above Keene
Valley, I owe more obligations than I can well express.

Harvard University,
March, 1902.