borumi's review against another edition
4.0
I've always regarded religion (well, at least MY religion) as a very personal matter. I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds the real value (or the root of the real value) in the individual, subjective union. So many religious foundations and sects are being formed and divided, and they are becoming more ecclesiastical, dogmatic or systematized every day. However, they are forgetting the very basic essence of the individual union with the higher being and the world. They are also so intent on changing the world itself through their external group force and influence that they disregard the power of the simple prayer to change each individual from within. In a world becoming ever more interconnected and communicative, why do I get the feeling that they are becoming more sectarianized and disconnected? Maybe we should look back to the simpler and perhaps the more fundamental union of each individual with the bigger world and the higher being. Some of James' points are confusing and long-winded at times, but I feel that some of the messages ring true especially in a time like this, when the original purity of religion is increasingly becoming tainted with gross manipulations that further separates it from the original union and peace.
jonbrammer's review against another edition
4.0
_The Varieties of Religious Experience_ builds to the climax of James explaining his philosophy of Pragmatism. What I think is important here to the religion vs. rationalism debate is that James has no time for established religion, dogma, or theology. Rather, he focuses on the mystical, individual life-changing experiences people have in sensing the presence of a higher power. These experiences are as real as falling in love - they are a psychological phenomenon that, according to James, bubble up from the subconscious and have direct, pragmatic, positive effects on a person's life. What is missing here is a discussion of cultural influence on these experiences - why do people in Christian culture only frame these experiences in terms of Christianity? Do people lack a language outside of their culture to describe these mystical experiences?
jonathanlibrarian's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
Too many anecdotes which I cannot accept as a way to argue or form a thesis. However, there are several great insights about God and religion. God is the holder of immortality. James writes well and is well reasoned.
levininja's review against another edition
3.0
Review of The Varieties of Religious Experience
TLDR: good way to get an overview of what’s out there, especially in the Christian world. His insights are a bit lacking.
First off, this would better have been titled the Varieties of Christian Experiences, with a smattering of references to other religions. But I’ll put that point aside for the rest of the review and give him the benefit of the doubt that he was probably limited in how much he could delve into other religions (given the culture he was writing for at the time).
His basic premise in these lectures is to describe, from a psychologist’s perspective, the varieties of different people’s personal religious experiences, and try to understand them. He explains right off the bat that by dissecting them in such a way he is not at all trying to discredit their value or that they really happened. His first lecture I found to be very good as it explores the question of whether understanding the origins of events should contribute to how much we value or trust those events.
His methodology for picking examples to study is to pick the most extreme examples. He and I disagree—if that’s your only criteria then how are we filtering out the insane from the Godly? Nevertheless I read on and enjoyed learning about many of the different experiences people have had. This book of lectures is essentially a huge compendium of anecdotes, grouped by topic, with only a few chapters that are proper lectures on William James’ opinions on broad subjects, such as the chapter on philosophy toward the end. (This I considered to be probably the least useful chapter by far. I don’t think he knows what he is talking about at all re philosophy and he would have been better off not mentioning it.)
Overall I give this some stars for simply making available to me such a breadth of examples. This has piqued my interest on several notable figures and books that I will now go read.
However I found it lacking in two ways. The first is that, while with some of his claims he does back them up with good evidence, James also continually makes wide-sweeping claims unbacked by any evidence. He simply uses a word like “clearly” or “obviously” or “it should be apparent.” No, no, oftentimes it’s not in the least apparent—in my opinion at least. I recognize that not everyone will agree on what is apparent or not.
The second problem I have is with his manner of summarily dismissing entire areas of religion (such as mysticism or philosophy) or people. For example, he was extremely unfair to Mother Theresa in my opinion.
I also take some issue with him giving credence to some more extreme people who we cannot say are acting in good faith when they claim to be religious. Some examples of what I would include would be the sadomasochistic monks, a pirate who claims God helps him murder several people in Lecture 19, and especially the whole chapter devoted to the mind cure movement which is clearly a grouping of cults meant to take advantage of people.
The final lecture, which is supposed to be conclusions, rather baffled me. For the first half he talked on and on about topics that were seemingly unrelated and new topics not talked about during the rest of the lectures. But the second half did finally make an attempt to put together some concluding thoughts that were worthwhile but certainly not ground-breaking by any means.
An insight of his that I did find particularly compelling is that we interact with the supernatural through our subconscious. There is considerable evidence that he cites to back this up and for me personally that idea illuminated many of my own experiences.
I didn’t end this series of lectures feeling quite satisfied, but I am glad that I have been made aware of some areas of spirituality that I was unaware of, and it has given me further reading recommendations. So for those reasons it was worth reading.
TLDR: good way to get an overview of what’s out there, especially in the Christian world. His insights are a bit lacking.
First off, this would better have been titled the Varieties of Christian Experiences, with a smattering of references to other religions. But I’ll put that point aside for the rest of the review and give him the benefit of the doubt that he was probably limited in how much he could delve into other religions (given the culture he was writing for at the time).
His basic premise in these lectures is to describe, from a psychologist’s perspective, the varieties of different people’s personal religious experiences, and try to understand them. He explains right off the bat that by dissecting them in such a way he is not at all trying to discredit their value or that they really happened. His first lecture I found to be very good as it explores the question of whether understanding the origins of events should contribute to how much we value or trust those events.
His methodology for picking examples to study is to pick the most extreme examples. He and I disagree—if that’s your only criteria then how are we filtering out the insane from the Godly? Nevertheless I read on and enjoyed learning about many of the different experiences people have had. This book of lectures is essentially a huge compendium of anecdotes, grouped by topic, with only a few chapters that are proper lectures on William James’ opinions on broad subjects, such as the chapter on philosophy toward the end. (This I considered to be probably the least useful chapter by far. I don’t think he knows what he is talking about at all re philosophy and he would have been better off not mentioning it.)
Overall I give this some stars for simply making available to me such a breadth of examples. This has piqued my interest on several notable figures and books that I will now go read.
However I found it lacking in two ways. The first is that, while with some of his claims he does back them up with good evidence, James also continually makes wide-sweeping claims unbacked by any evidence. He simply uses a word like “clearly” or “obviously” or “it should be apparent.” No, no, oftentimes it’s not in the least apparent—in my opinion at least. I recognize that not everyone will agree on what is apparent or not.
The second problem I have is with his manner of summarily dismissing entire areas of religion (such as mysticism or philosophy) or people. For example, he was extremely unfair to Mother Theresa in my opinion.
I also take some issue with him giving credence to some more extreme people who we cannot say are acting in good faith when they claim to be religious. Some examples of what I would include would be the sadomasochistic monks, a pirate who claims God helps him murder several people in Lecture 19, and especially the whole chapter devoted to the mind cure movement which is clearly a grouping of cults meant to take advantage of people.
The final lecture, which is supposed to be conclusions, rather baffled me. For the first half he talked on and on about topics that were seemingly unrelated and new topics not talked about during the rest of the lectures. But the second half did finally make an attempt to put together some concluding thoughts that were worthwhile but certainly not ground-breaking by any means.
An insight of his that I did find particularly compelling is that we interact with the supernatural through our subconscious. There is considerable evidence that he cites to back this up and for me personally that idea illuminated many of my own experiences.
I didn’t end this series of lectures feeling quite satisfied, but I am glad that I have been made aware of some areas of spirituality that I was unaware of, and it has given me further reading recommendations. So for those reasons it was worth reading.
shawnwhy's review against another edition
5.0
he searched high and low near and far for all kinds of religeus experiences. usually these binds teh person to the experience or a simbol associated to the exprience, and become more real than all other physically manifest experiences. god is real because the effect that it has on people is real
darrylb's review against another edition
4.0
James provides an empirical approach to evaluating mystical experiences. His findings are insightful, persuasive and practical. One of his more interesting conclusions is that he feels mystical experiences provide an argument for the existence of God, though this isn't his main thesis. At times the book is quite verbose and with his long sentences, it can be a little hard to read. This is compounded by often long accounts of mystic experiences. Given it is over 100 years old, this could be forgiven.