A must-read for anyone interested in spirituality and real religion

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	• The Varieties of Religious Experience William James Modern Library, 1999 - 640 pages average customer review:based on 49 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Always providing further insight

This 1902 publication still takes pride of place as a landmark study and remains one of the most influential books ever on psychology and spirituality. The style is accessible and engaging, consistently interesting with well-reasoned arguments. Religions are not compared; the study is restricted to the experiences of the individual.

James considers the feelings, actions and experiences of people insofar as they understand themselves to be in a relationship with whatever they consider the Divine. It has nothing to do with churches, doctrine or dogma, concerning itself only with the religious experiences of everyday life.

He emphasizes the passionate aspect of religion and its power of adding enchantment to life. Dealing objectively with a wide spectrum of observed and personally related religious experiences, James also quotes from the autobiographical writings of famous authors, theologians and mystics from many traditions including Whitman, Luther, Voltaire, Emerson, Tolstoy and many others.

The terrain of study is clearly identified and circumscribed. Chapter titles include Religion & Neurology, the Reality of the Unseen, the Religion of Healthy-Mindedness, the Sick Soul, the Divided Self & the Process of Unification, Conversion, Saintliness, Mysticism and Philosophy.

In his own words: "Both thought and feeling are determinants of conduct, and the same conduct may be determined either by feeling or thought. When we survey the whole field of religion, we find a great variety in the thoughts that have prevailed there; but the feelings on the one hand and the conduct on the other are almost always the same, for Stoic, Christian and Buddhist saints are practically indistinguishable in their lives. The theories which religion generates, being thus variable, are secondary. If you wish to grasp its essence, you must look to the feelings and the conduct as being the more constant elements."

This book offers a treasure trove of insights, revelation, wisdom and points to ponder that contributes substantially to the reader's understanding of consciousness, psychological processes, mystic states, thought & emotion, and the relationship to the Eternal Divine.

Although it is not a difficult text to grasp, patience is called for since every sentence is loaded with so many layers of meaning that one often has to reread a previous paragraph in order to fully comprehend and properly process the insights and information. A mindful, meditative study of the text will richly reward the reader.

Other works on religion and/or spirituality that I have found illuminating, inspiring or thought-provoking are Bible Mystery and Bible Meaning & The Creative Process in the Individual by Thomas Troward, Religion in the Making by Alfred North Whitehead, The Hidden Power of the Bible by Ernest Holmes, Alter Your Life by Emmet Fox, Cracking the Bible Code by Jeffrey Satinover, The Thirteen Petalled Rose by Adin Steinsaltz and One Cosmos Under God by Robert Godwin.

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The Pragmatism of Belief

American philosopher William James (brother of novelist Henry James) was a proponent of Pragmatism: if it works, then it has "truth". I realize such a definition, which I heard elsewhere as a definition of pragmatism, will send certain intellectual readers into orbit, but I've learned that if I couldn't explain something in simple (not synonymous with simplistic) terms, I didn't know enough about the subject. This definition works for me to describe what Mr. James asks in these lectures: Does religion 'work'?

He answers that religious belief does 'work' for a large number of people and, rather than turning them into fanatics, helps to not only get through the dark nights, but, for some, makes them joyful, kind and physically healthy. How, he asks, can this be called 'untrue'? Even if there is no God, the placebo effect, so to speak, works 'scientifically' and if we accept it in medicine, why not accept it in religion?

Mr. James, during this presentation of lectures on religion at the University of Edinburg, surveys the effects various types of religious beliefs have on the believers. It is a delightful journey, clearly written (especially notable for being written in 1902) with Mr. James charming use of examples from interviews and letters of believers of various types. I especially liked his survey of the New Thought movement of the late nineteenth century America and noted it's echoes, I assume from the blurbs I've read, in the recent book "The Secret".

I have read this book twice and now am reading certain chapters again and it remains fresh over a hundred years since he gave these lectures. I find his views on science and religion, and their interaction, especially relevant in the recent "believer vs. nonbeliever" diatribes we listen to today which supposedly pass as "discussions."

For example, Mr. James states: "Evidently, then, the science and the religion are both of them genuine keys for unlocking the world's treasure-house to him who can use either of them practically. Just as evidently neither is exhaustive or exclusive of the other's simultaneous use. And why, after all, may not the world be so complex as to consist of many interpenetrating spheres of reality, which we can thus approach in alternation by using different conceptions and assuming differnt attitudes, just as mathematicians handle the same numerical and spatial facts by geometry, by analytical geometry, by algebra, by the calculus, or by quaternions, and each time come out right?" p. 110 of my 1967 Collier ed.

Mr. James is the sort of human you feel you could discuss anything with and he would never raise his voice, make ad hominen attacks or think you a dolt no matter what lunacy you espoused. Would that we had more of such gentlemen and women today.

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A must-read for anyone interested in spirituality and real religion

It is often said of classics that one is meant to know about but not actually read them. How many believers in evolution have actually waded through Darwin's dry tome? Well, this book is certainly an exception to that rule, and will leave most readers with changed views both on what religion really means as well as its significance to the individual. I'd seen the book quoted so many times by other authors that finally I decided to see what it was all about, and I'm glad I did. The many quotes I'd read from the book at various times were no substitite for the real thing. Don't be put off by what may appear from the outside as one of those dry comparative religion books. This is not about ecclesiastics, ceremonials, or creeds, but focuses on the common religious experience underlying mankind's various religions and philosophies. It shows that the religious experience and its effect on the individual is a process not limited to any religion or belief, but a phenomenon underlying the human experience. As it is such a powerful personal experience, it has led to the formation of many religions, but these have generally had the effect of stifling spiritual growth. No-one has a monopoly on spirituality, however much some religions try to promote such a misconception.

Interesting is his distinction between 'once-born' and 'twice-born' people (not to be confused with the Christian concept of 'born-again' - not all born-again Christians are twice-born, while not all twice-borns are born-again Christians, which for many just means an acceptance of the Christian creeds, a belief that Christ died for one's salvation). The twice-born person has gone through a period of intense spiritual suffering, their 'long dark night of the soul', and come out at the other end a new individual, with new spiritual insights and a new perpective on life and its challenges. Some born-again Christians do fit this description, but not many. One could reject one's Christianity, but one could never revert from twice to once-born.

We all know people who've never given a thought about spirituality, life or death. Generally, but not always, they are people who quickly found a comfortable place in society, and have not had a major spiritual crisis to shake them up a bit, or lack the sensibility to be affected by them when they do occur. These are the once-born individuals referred to by James. Until genuine spiritual growth occurs in such people they are likely to remain uninterested in anything but the physical, or remain unthinkingly devout to the religion which they were, quite by chance, born into, and if they had to review a book like this, would be unlikely to award more than a single star.

I cannot recommend reading this book more strongly. Its one of those books that you'll never forget because in some undefinable way it leaves your a changed person. Having read many other more modern books on a similar theme, I can only say it more than favourably compares to many of them. The English is clearly early twentieth century, but still lucid and very readable, with few of the horrible literary devices with which many of the learned both then and now try to make their works more 'academic'.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The Varieties of Religious Experience was an immediate bestseller upon its publication in June 1902. Reflecting the pluralistic views of psychologist turned philosopher William James, it posits that individual religious experiences, rather than the tenets of organized religions, form the backbone of religious life. James?s discussion of conversion, repentance, mysticism, and hope of reward and fears of punishment in the hereafter?as well as his observations on the religious experiences of such diverse thinkers as Voltaire, Emerson, Luther, and others?all support his thesis. Walter Houston Clark in Psychology Today deemed it ?the most notable of all books in the field of the psychology of religion.?

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