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The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by Harvard University psychologist and philosopher William James.It comprises his edited Gifford Lectures on natural theology, which were delivered at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland between 1901 and 1902.
A religious experience (sometimes known as a spiritual experience, sacred experience, mystical experience) is a subjective experience which is interpreted within a religious framework. [1] The concept originated in the 19th century, as a defense against the growing rationalism of Western society. [2] William James popularised the concept. [2]
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious ... James, William, The varieties of religious experience: ...
He conducted surveys of religious belief and conversion using questionnaires along with G. Stanley Hall at Clark University and published several papers of his findings. He later published the book Psychology of Religion (1899) and also contributed to the work of William James' Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). [2]
(—William James, "The Sentiment of Rationality") The doctrine James developed in his "The Will to Believe" lecture was later extended by his protégé F. C. S. Schiller in his lengthy essay "Axioms as Postulates". In this work, Schiller downplays the connection between James' doctrine and religious positions like God and immortality.
While conversion is the most studied aspect of religion by psychologists of religion, there is little empirical data on the topic, and little change in method since William James' classic Varieties of Religious Experience in 1902. [41] James Scroggs and William Douglas have written on seven current concerns in the psychology of conversion ...
Under the influence of William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience, heavily centered on people's conversion experiences, most philosophers' interest in mysticism has been in distinctive, allegedly knowledge-granting "mystical experiences." [web 1]
William James in Brazil, 1865. William James was born at the Astor House in New York City on January 11, 1842. He was the son of Henry James Sr., a noted and independently wealthy Swedenborgian theologian well acquainted with the literary and intellectual elites of his day.