PHILOSOPHY – The Varieties of Religious Experience
I do believe that feeling is the deeper source of religion, and that philosophic and theological formulas are secondary products, like translations of a text into another tongue. But all such statements are misleading from their brevity, and it will take the whole hour for me to explain to you exactly what I mean.
CONVERSION – The Varieties of Religious Experience
To be converted, to be regenerated, to receive grace, to experience religion, to gain an assurance, are so many phrases which denote the process, gradual or sudden, by which a self hitherto divided, and consciously wrong inferior and unhappy, becomes unified and consciously right superior and happy, in consequence of its firmer hold upon religious realities.
THE DIVIDED SELF, AND THE PROCESS OF ITS UNIFICATION
These examples may suffice to acquaint us in a general way with the phenomenon technically called “Conversion.”
THE VALUE OF SAINTLINESS William James
It is its truth, not its utility, you insist, upon which our verdict ought to depend. If religion is true, its fruits are good fruits, even though in this world they should prove uniformly ill adapted and full of naught but pathos.
Religion and Neurology – Varieties of Religious Experience
The question, What are the religious propensities? and the question, What is their philosophic significance? are two entirely different orders of question from the logical point of view;
Varieties of Religious Experience – William James
The course is not anthropological, but deals with personal documents. Percepts versus abstract concepts-Happiness is man’s chief concern-Healthy-mindedness and repentance- Heterogeneous personality- Sudden conversion- Testing human value of its fruits- Mysticism defined- Primacy of feeling in religion- Philosophy a secondary function- Aesthetic elements in religion- Summary of religious characteristics