The Varieties Of Religious Experience: A Study In Human Nature

Book Summary

'The Varieties of Religious Experience is certainly the most notable of all books in the field of the psychology of religion and probably destined to be the most influential one written on religion in the twentieth century.'- Walter Houston Clark in Psychology Today Marked by a rare combination of penetrating thought and virtuosic style, the writings of William James represent one of America's most original contributions to the history of ideas. Ranging from philosophy and psychology to religion and politics, James composed the most engaging formulation of American pragmatism. This collection presents Pragmatism in its entirety, James's seminal set of lectures in which he argues in his witty and limpid style for the "reasonableness of ordinary experience." Also gathered here are selections from James's other formative works, including The Meaning of Truth, Psychology, The Will to Believe, and Talks to Teachers on Psychology. Throughout these essays the fecund power of imagination is restored to the operations of rationality by James, whom George Santayana hailed as "an impulsive poet: a master in the art of recording or divining the lyric quality of experience."

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