The Varieties of Religious Experience in Exceptional Books

Mar 29, 2015 Kamakana rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy-american, philosophy, xlong-over-400, historicity, religion, nonfiction, aa-unitedstateslit, zz1900-1905, grand-narrative

190619 later later addition: reading chapter on James in The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism on american pragmatism, certainly inspires more reading of his work. does not directly mention much of this text, but reveals his and others, pierce, emerson, dewey, all influenced by, all noted, christianity as baseline to their attitudes, their ideas, of idealism embodied in empirical and abstract ideologies of truth, effect, value- so maybe i should pay more attention to this 190619 later later addition: reading chapter on James in The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism on american pragmatism, certainly inspires more reading of his work. does not directly mention much of this text, but reveals his and others, pierce, emerson, dewey, all influenced by, all noted, christianity as baseline to their attitudes, their ideas, of idealism embodied in empirical and abstract ideologies of truth, effect, value- so maybe i should pay more attention to this book...

171215 later addition: note to readers of this review, reason you might discount my judgement- i am not religious in any manner. friend just recently felt urge to correct my interpretation, say it is all about faith, of the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham, but i could not follow the argument. i do not start, nor end, from any religious experience. so maybe my reading of this book is always already without grounds...

070415 first review: this is of its time, 1902, in that religious experiences in all varieties are christian, and designed, mostly, to confirm such usual monotheistic, modern, forms- not entirely avoiding catholicism but most revealing protestantism as generally practiced in the america of his time- including evangelical movements... this book reminds me not of religious texts, read or unread, but of durant's 'story of philosophy' which is almost as old (also a three)...

and the strategies j begins with are to 1) define terms, subject, 2) insist on reality of the unseen, and to do this, from the beginning j appeals to quotes, often long, of this and that person who undergoes these varied religious experiences. for me this does not convince more than any testimonials, but does offer actuality of these moments, conviction, efficacy, on those people. after these early chapters, he does use this technique less but never stops. at first, reading these claims is something to lightly read, later to skim, later yet to skip... but with 1) assured to himself, 2) is also vouchsafed...

i do not know what i expected- this follows the title: 'religious experiences', not philosophy, not theistic arguments, not coherence of this or that faith, not attempts to ground faith in logic but in affect, not what interests me much. so moving on, having established his subject is not to be confused with neurology, he does allow other 'altered states' (such as intoxication) as possible routes to the divine, j contrasts the healthy soul, the optimism of 'mind science', versus the sick soul, the pessimism of romans, greeks, a contrast of attitudes which will both lead to religion, the first of which reminds me too much of self-help and pop psychology texts, the next, in some examples of how life-changing conversions rescue this or that soul from destroying himself or herself, mentioning the 'twice-born' concept favoured by some ...

this 'conversion', which is given a few testimonials, seems to be a combination of uniting oneself body and soul, then uniting with some greater soul- the world, the fellows, the enemies even- and this is where j is clearest as psychologist: he lets his 'patients' speak, he reflects on the extremity some people go to, some beyond what seems 'objectively' healthy, but it is all on a spectrum of human behaviour, human qualities, from too much intellect and too little emotion to too much emotion and too little intellect... not surprisingly, j finds protestant expressions of faith most healthy, most socially beneficial, as he will decide the worth of religious experiences pragmatically, for individuals, for groups, though he does argue eventually there is an 'aesthetic' value in faith best shown by those colourful catholics...

j then tries to qualify saintliness, as first a sort of ideal behaviour, then as evidenced in certain saints- which in this case starts to sound almost how-to become a saint, rather than a naturally 'strong man', insisting mortification etc. is more diseased that devout, as the saint should be seen as a desired religious state, an aspiration, though not necessarily right for everyone. again j offers testimonials, offers pity at those unfortunates who never have such moments of faith, of clarity, of absolute belief... almost we are less than human...

j comes to mysticism, which foregrounds the most immediate problem with religious experience is the fact it is 'mystical' experience, it is of incommunicable nature- for me a general problem with religion as a whole. but not j, who is confident in naming essential qualities of all mystics, asceticism, absolutism, asocial, transcendental etc., and here he wanders afield to buddhism and hinduism, though he knows little of either, and these thoughts lead to a short chapter on philosophy. which i hoped to better grasp, but after dismissing kant, valourizing scot and english empiricists- j believes the only thing is to admit philosophy of religion by which we would come to understand all world religions... and while i can agree that the 'scientific' picture of the universe is not the personal, 'human' way of the world, i tend more towards phenomenology as a 'first science' of the self, rather than deciding science should work with pre-given religious testimony, cosmology, ontology...

this is the greatest problem i have with this historical document by j: i am not convinced that it is by human 'virtue' we have similar religious experiences that are thereby true, rather i believe it is by human 'vice' we have similar experiences that some call religious that are thereby false... or, as i am not committed against the the facts but the interpretations: simply mistaken... this book is of its era, perhaps in a philosophical way 'preaching to the choir', but i guess i will just continue not being religious in any way... this is a three. of its thought time, of its thought space, it is at the least an energetic, closely argued, example of an intellectual sort of faith...

note: if you do decide to read this text, i would suggest another edition, as this print is small, crowded, and not clearly different in text, footnotes, or quotes. ...more

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Dec 27, 2016 Lynn rated it it was ok

Read this book while watching Season 2 of the series 'The Man in the High Castle'. The book was an opinion of the author, who is quite interesting. ...more

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