Varieties Of Religious Experience Research Articles

У. Джеймс в русском академическом богословии нач. ХХ в. Часть I. По направлению к Джеймсу

The impact of W. James’s ideas on Russian religious thought is a well-known fact, however this topic cannot be considered exhausted, since the names and works of the representatives of spiritual and academic science, for whom an in­tellectual meeting with James became the impetus for creating their own con­cepts, still remain in the shadows. We should not forget that this meeting was prepared both by the previous development of academic science with its interest in empirical psychology, and by the close contacts of its representatives with philosophers and psychologists who united around the journal “Questions of Phi­losophy and Psychology”, which had been published for many years by the Mos­cow Psychological Society. For representatives of academic theology, the scien­tific recognition of the reality of mystical experience, on the one hand, provided a visible point of support for the preaching of Christianity in the secular world, and on the other hand, it made it necessary to identify the specificity of Christian experience as distinct from the experience of other religions. In addition, for aca­demic theologians, the question of how personal religious experience and Chris­tian action in society relate to each other has become an additional factor of in­terest in mystical problematics. From this point of view, the concepts of mystical experience of such authors as I. Popov and S. Zarin, which have not been consid­ered so far, are of particular interest. In their works, we find a gradual approach to the problematics that was finally legitimized with the release of the Russian translation of “The Varieties of Religious Experience” in 1910.

William James and the Pragmatic Rhetoric of Exemplary Figures: Inspirations for Spiritual Meliorism, Democratic Individuality, and Empowered Social Change

ABSTRACT As a longstanding area of practice and inquiry in rhetorical scholarship, the role of the example in rhetorical discourse has undergone its share of debates, discussions, and important advancements. One important topic of discussion on these matters involves the role of the example in providing either strategic ambiguity or experiential clarity. Through an analysis of William James’s deployment of a pragmatic rhetoric of exemplary figures in The Varieties of Religious Experience, this essay advances a view of the example as a resource for transforming the ambiguous consequences of inner ideals into pragmatic and empowered social action. In a chapter titled “The Value of Saintliness,” James invokes a cadre of saintly figures as exemplars in the attempt to cultivate democratic individuality and inspire social change efforts through the conduct of spiritual meliorism. This essay offers expanded conceptions of exemplarity and pragmatist rhetoric in contexts concerning democracy and social justice.

Delimiting Religion

Delimiting Religion

Isherwood in Transit

Isherwood in Transit

Remembrance for Stuart Rosenbaum (1943–2020)

Remembrance for Stuart Rosenbaum (1943–2020)

William James, Radical Empiricism, and the Affective Ground of Religious Life

William James, Radical Empiricism, and the Affective Ground of Religious Life

Varieties of Adlerian Experience

Varieties of Adlerian Experience Erik Mansager (bio) and Dyanne Pienkowski (bio) Inspired by the published celebration in spring 2020 of Adler’s 150th birthday in volume 76 of this journal, your current guest editors wanted to see whether, outside of scholarly articles, the depth and diversity of our community might also be shared. We asked members to contribute their Adlerian stories—what has moved them most deeply about Adler’s writings, philosophy, application, and personal healing. The wide-ranging experiences of the various authors in this issue called to mind William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902/2014). This entire issue is a celebration of sharing professional journeys and sometimes profoundly personal stories about what can happen when Adler’s Individual Psychology comes into focus for an individual. So, read on as one of the contributors to this special issue illustrates the very personal story of experiencing Adler’s theory in real life. It is a fine summary of the wonderful contributions you are about to read: In The Varieties of Religious Experience, the Father of American psychology, William James (1842–1910), considers the word religion and its powerful meanings. To many, the word connotes organized or institutionalized religion and belief in the all-powerful divine! Consider Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam. However, James suggests we also associate the word with our strong, emotional—power-filled—individual belief system that leads, connects or, in Adlerian terms, moves us toward whatever we consider the divine. To James (1902/2014) that can mean, well, practically anything: a belief, for example, not in “a deity in concreto, not a superhuman person, but the immanent divinity in things” (p. 33), including one’s aspirations, which, in Adlerian terms means goals. In essence, The Varieties of Religious Experience focuses on individuals’ deeply personal awakenings—movement—toward their self-perceived ideas of the divine. (Les White, personal communication, November 20, 2020) In fact, the choice of the “Varieties of Adlerian Experience” as a theme was first suggested by Jane Griffith in a touching interchange we had about [End Page 1] Adler’s contributions to Individual Psychology today. She suggested that there were many pluses for invoking William James in an Adlerian context. As the author of The Principles of Psychology (James, 1890/1950), James is credited as breaking psychology away from philosophy, and he was the first to treat psychology as a separate discipline. And, as Les White mentioned, James is considered the “Father of American psychology,” which indicates the importance of this special issue for the North American audience. But mainly, by drawing to mind William James’s popular 1901–1902 Gifford Lectures, published as The Varieties of Religious Experience, Jane indicated that James’s range of individual experiences were so different one from another that some challenged whether they really constituted religion at all. To James’s great credit, he showed that all the experiences were united at the feeling level. Our focus for this issue also acknowledges, by demonstration, how Adler’s theory and therapy have become a pervasive influence across the varied fields of human caregivers today. Rather than lament what has been borrowed from Adler without attribution, this issue celebrates the growth of Adlerian influence along Adler’s original lines as well as among the enthusiasts who incidentally, accidentally, or intentionally attribute their appreciation of Adler to an understanding and practice of his theory and therapy. In doing so, the issue celebrates the self-identified Adlerian. Regarding the scope of this issue, we wanted to include perspectives from the Adlerian psychologist, therapist, counselor, coach, parent educator, teacher, professor, consultant, consumer, and others. To secure this breadth, invitations were made to published Adlerians for the names of those who they believed exemplified an Adlerian spirit. These identified practitioners were invited to share along the following lines: Describe the kind of work you do; identify features in Adlerian Psychology that are most valuable and useful to your particular work; share what and who influenced you most in your Adlerian identity; and cite the top few sources you draw from for your work. So, given the focus, population, and the topics—we needed only respondents. And respond they did! Enough to fill this...

Jack London's Fear of Insanity in the Tropics

Jack London's Fear of Insanity in the Tropics Jay Williams (bio) Adventuring is meant to conquer fear. Yet men can go crazy at sea. Never-ending open water, a threat to mental stability itself, heaves at times with vicious storms, waves that would dwarf a forty-three-foot ketch, such as the one that Jack and Charmian London sailed from San Francisco to the Solomon Islands. But not back. He abandoned the trip after seventeen months. He gave various reasons, emphasizing physical ailments, but his final words on the matter are in the afterword to The Cruise of the Snark. Although he graphically explains how badly swollen and diseased his hands were, thus making it impossible to move "about on a small rolling boat," he cited his Australian doctors to explain the cause of the swelling and peeling. They "agreed that the malady was non-parasitic, and that, therefore, it must be nervous" (Backword 338).1 Hence, to California, where he had "always maintained a stable nervous equilibrium." What he meant by "nervous" and "nervous equilibrium" has never been interrogated, least of all by London. When we do so, we are led to the real reasons London terminated his Snark voyage. It wasn't his hands. It was his mind and therefore his identity.2 He doesn't publicly explore this surprising analysis. He wants people to believe he is referencing merely the ordinary mental anguish that accompanies physical suffering. More likely, he wants to deflect attention away from the cause to the symptoms. Privately, he was deeply concerned about his own mental health and the danger of psychic collapse. In a veritable mania about the subject of the psyche and its illnesses, through the years he conducted a thorough investigation in the literature of nervousness. On board the Snark, he read William Thomson's Brain and Personality and Joseph Jastrow's Subconscious (C. London, Diary 12 Mar. and 17–20 Apr. 1908). He was already familiar with the work of Alfred [End Page 121] Binet and Pierre Janet (Williams, Author, 248–51). In the future he would read further in the literature to find clues to why he was susceptible to mental exhaustion and breakdown. He would purchase at least five monographs published by the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease Publishing Company, including works by Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank. He read Karl Abraham's Dreams and Myths; Richard von Kraft-Ebbing's Textbook of Insanity and Psychopathia Sexualis; Caleb Saleeby's Worry: The Disease of the Age, David Lincoln's Sanity of Mind, Williams James's The Varieties of Religious Experience, Samuel A. Tannenbaum's 1916 article "Psycho-Analysis" in The American Journal of Urology and Sexology, and a host of other books and articles on mental states. He cited Freud in his preface, written in 1915, to Osias Schwarz's General Types of Superior Men (Preface 6). He read Carl Jung (see Letters 3: 1597–98). This is just a sampling; many of his library books have been lost (especially those he read on the Snark) or are in private unknown hands. The architecture and diseases of the mind fascinated him, in a horrified sort of way, because even a temporary nervous breakdown meant the loss of identity, especially of authorial identity. According to Elsie Martinez, "one of the obsessions Jack had, George Sterling told us, was that he was losing his mind like his mother. Sterling used to soothe him by declaring he was merely suffering from exhaustion" (148). We don't know what time period she refers to, and her memory and/or sources are sometimes questionable. Still, a significant amount of his fiction directly or indirectly reflects that obsession and examines the lives of insane, partially insane, or neurasthenic characters. The White Silence, so predominant in London's Klondike stories, drives some of London's Northland inhabitants mad. Even in notes for unwritten tales, insanity is a theme: "Negro cook—black as ace of spades—He has provisions etc. Goes crazy. Makes his way south. Camp of Indians. Witch doctress speaks of strange portents. Enter crazy nigger singing" ("Klondike Sketches"). Then there is "The White Man's Way," featuring Old Ebbits, he...

WILLIAM JAMES AND THE ROLE OF MYSTICISM IN RELIGION

In Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (1902) William James examines the role of mysticism in the development of religion. James argues that the root of all religions is precisely the experience of mystical states of consciousness. As we shall see, although James himself admits that his own psychological constitution shuts him out from these experiences, the acknowledgement of practical developments of mysticism within institutionalized religions illustrates the reality of these states of consciousness, a stance supported by James’ pragmatism. Thus, the paper not only examines the nature of mysticism but presents James’ pragmatist view of religion.

Review: The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience: Atheism in American Culture, by Jerome P. Baggett

The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience is emblematic of the second of three main streams of atheist books published in the West over the past two decades. On the one hand, Jerome Baggett’s nuanced sentiments resemble the countercultural work of others—such as Alain de Botton’s study of atheist reclamation(s) of religiosity in Religion for Atheists (2012)—that confronts reductionist conceptions of atheists and theists by showcasing the symmetry between their respective worldviews. On the other hand, Baggett differs from the militant first wave tenor of atheist apologists such as Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion (2006) and Christopher Hitchens’ God Is Not Great (2007). In contrast to the New Atheist defenders of atheist orthodoxy who dominate the media landscape, Baggett illuminates the humanity and humility of ordinary atheists in his survey of more than 500 American nonbelievers. Most atheists, he concludes, are not antireligious as they are so often characterized, but rather freethinkers with multifaceted personalities.The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience has several strengths. The book is the second published in New York University Press’ Secular Studies series, which is edited by the leading sociologist of atheism Phil Zuckerman. Baggett is cognizant of major and minor debates, including whether, and in what ways, atheists contribute to American public life and the inextricable linkages between modern conceptions of God and atheism. In a society bedeviled by self-aggrandizement, Baggett’s self-effacement is quite refreshing. He muses that his book will certainly not become an instant classic. He under-promises hoping to over-deliver. Baggett lucidly takes readers on a narratological trek of case studies to map the perplexities of atheists moving from belief to nonbelief. In the Acknowledgments, Baggett confesses he aspires only to capture interviewees’ stories.Baggett makes coherent arguments and modest inferences too. His expertise as a thinker and writer are on full display. He nimbly situates the current mood of public atheism, from the outset in the Preface, within the broader perspectives of scholarship, theories, and concepts about atheism. Avoiding needless jargon, he introduces rich and relevant analytical categories—empirical, critical, agnostic, and immanent—to contextualize the varying styles of unbelief. The book aptly develops its organizing principle through two clear sections—one on the atheist identity, the other cultivating atheist sensibilities—to highlight how “ordinary atheism” is not an affront to theism. The mirror imaging of the theist versus the atheist stems from a false binary consciousness. Because neither group, the author insinuates, has a monopoly on truth, theists and atheists should be able to learn from one another.In terms of limitations, Baggett’s survey methodology reinscribes facets of a white normativity in the reimagining of atheism in American culture, which reinforces the invisibility and the angst nonreligious people of color face on a daily basis. Mimicking William James’ overreliance on Christian-framed psychological analysis in The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), Baggett focuses on white atheists’ testimonials, based on the racial and ethnic demographics of the 518 respondents (detailed in Appendix B): 3 percent Asian/Pacific Islanders, 4 percent “others,” 6 percent African Americans, 7 percent Hispanics/Latinos, and 80 percent whites.The issue extends, however, beyond the nonrandom sample size of people of color to the ahistorical and decontextualized questionnaire (detailed in Appendix A). Contrary to western European and white North American atheist populations, African American atheists often become atheist not through the ruminations of Enlightenment scientific rationalism, but through the ramifications of historic-traumatic events, such as the injustices of institutional racism. Baggett could be more intentional in examining how race and ethnicity as well as gender, class, and non-heterosexual subjects and sources color analyses of irreligious literacy to allow for fresher, multilayered meanings of cultural atheisms. In my own undergraduate course in “Atheism, Humanism, and Secularism” at San Diego State University, I will assign Baggett’s text alongside the third book in Zuckerman’s series, Nathan G. Alexander’s Race in a Godless World (2019). When used in tandem, the books offer a counterbalanced cultural, theological, and historical overview of the diversity within, and discrimination encountered by, atheists in America and globally.Despite the limitations of the book, the veracity of Baggett’s central thesis regarding the primacy of incorporating lived atheism in the sociology of religion is difficult to refute. He provides a compelling and complex portrait of rank-and-file nonbelievers living meaningful lives, who cautiously rethink the real and the imagined boundaries of religious constraints. Scholars in the fields of New Religions Studies as well as Third Wave Liberationist-Atheist Studies will surely welcome the challenge to stigmas and stereotypes combatted by a misunderstood community on the margins of society.

Pragmatic Saintliness: Toward a Criticism and Celebration of Community

Abstract This essay responds to John McDermott’s diagnosis of politics and religious life in the U.S.: “[B]oth traditional political and religious institutions are no longer an adequate let alone rich resource for a celebratory language.” I present a new celebratory language by reading William James’s description of saintliness in Varieties of Religious Experience. James gives me the resources to naturalize and democratize saintliness. Distinguished not by her transcendent miracles but by her this-worldly energies and experiments, the pragmatic saint remakes the experience of her community through celebration, a form of appreciation and criticism exemplified in engaged art. My ethical and aesthetic description of the saint thus builds on E. Paul Colella’s recent political description of the saint as the “strenuous citizen.”

Introduction to the Special Issue “Religious and Spiritual Experiences”

William James’s seminal book, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902/2012), describes the phenomenology and ‘fruits’ (James 2012, p [...]

WILLIAM JAMES’S DEMOCRATIC AESTHETICS

AbstractWilliam James is famous for his investigations of the “Varieties of Religious Experience” in which people encounter (what they take to be) the divine. But in his essay, “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings,” his interest is in our experiences, not of anything purportedly supernatural, but of one another. He thinks we need to cultivate the capacity to apprehend the intrinsic value of others, even and especially of strangers. We do so in experiences of the wonder and beauty of our fellow citizens, and of our harmony with them. Democratic societies require a sense of attraction to one another’s form of life if they are to inspire shared commitments to public goods. Whereas we shouldn’t reject the political significance of aversion, contestation, and dissonance, these negative attitudes do not suffice. Sustaining democratic engagement requires attractive attitudes, and among these are the wonder, beauty, and harmony that James promotes.

Do We All Live Story-Shaped Lives? Narrative Identity, Episodic Life, and Religious Experience

This article focuses on exploring the concept of narrative identity, which has emerged as an integrative concept in various academic fields. Particularly in philosophy and psychology, scholars have claimed that humans are storytellers by nature and tell their stories that develop in them a sense of identity. However, this concept has been criticized by those who have argued that while some people are Diachronic (narrative), some are Episodic (non-narrative). People with an episodic disposition do not or are not able to live a narrative or story of some sort. In order to explore the distinction between Diachronic and Episodic dispositions, I analyze the autobiographical writing of Leo Tolstoy, namely Tolstoy’s personal religious experience presented in William James’ “The Varieties of Religious Experience”. This particular case study demonstrates how an Episodic person can become Diachronic and gain a sense of unity and a sense of self through religious experience. In the end, I argue that Episodic and Diachronic dispositions are not mutually exclusive in an individual’s life, but that individuals may at different points in life experience their lives in one manner or another.

PRAGMATIST PHILOSOPHY AND DANCE: INTERDISCIPLINARY DANCE RESEARCH IN THE AMERICAN SOUTH BY ERIC MULLIS

Reviewed by: Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance: Interdisciplinary Dance Research in the American South by Eric Mullis Aili Bresnahan By Eric Mullis Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance: Interdisciplinary Dance Research in the American South Palgrave MacMillan, 2019, 247 pp. with index Eric Mullis' Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance is a thoroughly multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary book that is centered on and deeply engaged in the experimental and lived experience of Pentecostal dance in the American and Appalachian South. The focal point for Mullis' research is not observation and critique of dance as embodied religious practice from a critical distance (although he does engage it critically and analytically) but from the inside, embedding his own person and body into the environment with all the resources of the unifying self that he has at his disposal to not just understand the form but feel it and live it. This makes Mullis a true William Jamesian and John Deweyan pragmatist; he doesn't just critically reflect on the work of classical pragmatists but he takes the reader on a sustained and deep dive into the qualitative, aesthetics, doing-and-undergoing world of the phenomenon he is analyzing. He does this as both a maker and creator of his own form of artistic representation of religious, ecstatic dance, using tools from contemporary and postmodern dance, theatre, and performance, and as an audience member and participant of Pentecostal services. He tells us about his process, which is reminiscent of Dewey's Barnesian explanation of how artists create art in Art as Experience, and he is willing to open himself up to the worries and possibility that he might, in the process, also experience true transformation and religious conversion (which has echoes of James' Varieties of Religious Experience). The primary value of this book for the pragmatist scholar is thus not historical analysis of pragmatic texts (although Mullis does some exegesis as well) but his example of how to be a pragmatist philosopher. To clarify, this is not beauty-parlor or armchair philosophy but one that lives, transacts, and trades in the historical and cultural environment that Mullis seeks to understand. The reader who chooses to follow his lead finds themselves immersed in theories of religion, comparative dance practice, theatre studies, ethnography of folk aesthetics, philosophy of pragmatism, Continental philosophy, analytic philosophy, and East Asian philosophies (also reminiscent of Dewey), as well as experiential choreographic and religious practice. It's comprehensive, dense, and at times, a bit unwieldy as a result, but it is organized in such a way [End Page 402] that the reader can skip around and focus on the parts and pieces of most interest and relevance to them. The organization and movement of the book is as follows: Eight chapters progress not in linear or chronological fashion but in an interweaving way. The book does have forward motion in that it's laid out in a way that seeks to advance our understanding of the exploration that Mullis is undergoing, but it does not take the form of an analytic unfolding argument. There is no propositional claim that Mullis is providing evidence for; the exploration, growth, development and embracing of fallibilism along the way is also more pragmatic in overarching method than analytic. And yet, conclusions are drawn and theories advanced along the way. Close explanation of all the methodologies employed, how they intersect, and the difficulties and limitations of interweaving all of these into the rich tapestry that he has created, shows up in the "Concluding Thoughts" section of Chapter 8. It's so illuminating that it may benefit the reader to skim this section before beginning to read the rest of the book for frame of reference. Chapters 1–4 set the historical stage for the book's philosophical and theatrical dance analysis. Chapter 1 outlines the pragmatic sources to be used in the book, including references to Dewey, James, and Richard Shusterman. Here Mullis explains why this is a pragmatist book, which for Mullis means that it is centered on experimental, first-person research as well as embracing pluralism and meliorism (the idea that the world can be made better with effort). He then explains how all of these theories...

The Neglected Lectures on Conversion and Saintliness in The Varieties of Religious Experience: William James’s Search for Redemptive (Saving) Facts

Research Article| May 01 2020 The Neglected Lectures on Conversion and Saintliness in The Varieties of Religious Experience: William James’s Search for Redemptive (Saving) Facts Dan D. Crawford Dan D. Crawford Dan D. Crawford received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh and has an M.A. in religion from Princeton University. Since 1997 he has taught at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the philosophy and religious studies departments. He has also held positions at Bucknell University, Muhlenberg College, and Albright College. His areas of specialization are the history of religious thought, American Evangelicalism, and the interrelations between science and theology. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Journal of Theology & Philosophy (2020) 41 (2-3): 56–81. https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjtheophil.41.2-3.0056 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Dan D. Crawford; The Neglected Lectures on Conversion and Saintliness in The Varieties of Religious Experience: William James’s Search for Redemptive (Saving) Facts. American Journal of Theology & Philosophy 1 January 2020; 41 (2-3): 56–81. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/amerjtheophil.41.2-3.0056 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressAmerican Journal of Theology & Philosophy Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2021 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2021 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

On Finding the Mortal World Enough: Value, Extinction, and the Crisis of the Humanities

This essay isolates and critically assesses the motivation behind the current backlash against the broadly culturalist and historicist paradigm that has structured research in the interpretative humanities since the 1980s. That motivation, it argues, has less to do with the noble desire to rescue the humanities from the alleged absurdities of the postmodernists than it has with a reluctance to face up fully to the secularism that many of the humanities’ contemporary critics (conservatives as well as progressives; insiders as well as outsiders) profess. If historicism and constructivism are under attack today, it is not merely because they offend certain entrenched epistemological or metaethical views. Rather, and more pointedly, it is because these secularist thought styles foreclose traditional sources of spiritual consolation, which many of us (perhaps all of us at certain moments in our lives) intimately rely upon. To make this case, the essay stages a confrontation between William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) and Sigmund Freud’s “On Transience” (1915), two texts that take a long hard look at the prospect of extinction and then diverge in their reactions.

The Fruits of the Unseen: A Jamesian Challenge to Explanatory Reductionism in Accounts of Religious Experience

AbstractIn Religious Experience, Wayne Proudfoot argued that a tout court rejection of reductionism in accounts of religious experience was not viable. According to Proudfoot, it’s possible to distinguish between an illegitimate practice of descriptive reductionism and the legitimate practice of explanatory reductionism. The failure to distinguish between these two forms of reductionism resulted in a protective strategy, or an attempt to protect religious experience from the reach of scientific explanation. Among the theorists whom he accused of deploying this illegitimate strategy Proudfoot included William James and his work in The Varieties of Religious Experience. In this article, I argue that while James does occasionally deploy a protective strategy in Varieties, this is not the only nor most important method of treating religious experience James developed. Implicit in his rejection of medical materialism, James not only deploys the protective strategy Proudfoot criticizes, but the pragmatic method with which he treats all claims. I argue that James’s pragmatic method leads to what James called noetic pluralism, or the view that there is no privileged knowledge practice, but a plurality of knowledge practices, and that this method puts pressure on the explanatory reductionist, who is implicitly committed to noetic monism.

The impact of James's Varieties of Religious Experience on Jung's work.

William James (1842-1910) is recognized as one of the main proponents of the then-emergent field of scientific psychology in the 19th century, and Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) is regarded as one of the most prolific authors within the fields of psychiatry and psychology of the 20th century. Previous studies have highlighted the practical and theoretical impact of James on the work of Jung. The present article makes use of detailed research for a deeper look at their theoretical relationship, with a focus on James's (1902/2010) Varieties of Religious Experience. This text, written in 1902, was particularly important for Jung's emphasis on fundamental subjective experience, which he evaluated in the book Psychology and Religion (Jung, 1938/1973). Moreover, we investigate important aspects of dynamic psychology developed by James, which Jung advanced in some of his works, particularly in "On the Nature of the Psyche" (Jung, 1946/1975a), an essay included in Structure & Dynamics of the Psyche. We focus on the idea that Jung's acquaintance with James led him to move away from psychoanalysis. In addition, their meeting shaped Jung's view regarding religious experience and influenced the formulation of his concept of the unconscious. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A Modern Polytheism? Nietzsche and James

ABSTRACTS Richard Rorty has argued that Friedrich Nietzsche and William James are both polytheists in the deflationary sense that they are both pluralists about human value. I argue that there is a more philosophically significant sense in which Nietzsche and James might be called polytheists: both advocate a life of openness and receptivity to multiple and potentially incommensurable sources of inspiration outside of our conscious control. The value of these sources is accessed in experiences in which one feels that one is given something in an experience that one could not have obtained through conscious effort. I argue that this moment of passivity plays a crucial role in both James’s treatment of religious experience in The Varieties of Religious Experience and Nietzsche’s account of the state of inspiration he experienced while composing Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and that their deep similarity on this point suggests that Nietzsche is closer to Jamesian religion than he is to Rortyan secularism.