james the varieties of religious experience

Matthew Bradley's wide-ranging new edition examines the ideas that continue to fuel modern debates on atheism and faith.ĪBOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe.

With psychological insight, philosophical rigour, and a determination not to jump to the conclusion that in tracing religion's mental causes we necessarily diminish its truth or value, in the Varieties James wrote a truly foundational text for modern belief. Faith in institutional religion and dogmatic theology was fading away, and the search for an authentic religion rooted in personality and subjectivity was a project conducted as an urgent necessity. Asking questions such as how we define evil to ourselves, the difference between a healthy and a divided mind, the value of saintly behaviour, and what animates and characterizes the mental landscape of sudden conversion, James's masterpiece stands at a unique moment in the relationship between belief and culture. The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) is William James's classic survey of religious belief in its most personal, and often its most heterodox, aspects. 'By their fruits ye shall know them, not by their roots.' Includes a completely updated index, expanded and corrected from the original index provided by Joyce in 1902.Explanatory notes identify key figures and contexts, and provides links with James's other work.

Introduction stresses the book's significance in the relationship between religion and culture, instituting a new approach to religious belief, discusses its ideas and their contemporary interest, as well as contextualizing the book within James's biographical, intellectual, and literary background.

James's work is more relevant than ever in its consideration of the effect of religious ideas on daily life, and atheists who attack religion with 'religious zeal'.

The most critically up-to-date and inclusive edition of this classic survey of religious belief, embracing the interdisciplinary nature of a work that fuses philosophy, psychology, religion, and literary studies, and emphasizing its wide appeal.

The Varieties of Religious Experience William JamesĮdited by Matthew Bradley Oxford World's Classics

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James the varieties of religious experience