The Varieties of Religious Experience

"Published in 1902 as The Varieties of Religious Experience, it centered on the commonalities in personal experience across many creeds and many centuries, setting aside the comparison of institutions and dogma as secondary. Cognizant that the traditional theologies of his day were crumbling under the assault of scientific materialism, he recognized that the search for meaning would necessarily and stubbornly persist. Both scientific and humanistic in his methodology, he avoided reductionism. It was the mystery of the thing that interested William James, the long documentary record, and he chose to treat his subject with ultimate respect as well as honest eyes, aware of both its lunatic shadows and its luminous core. Assuming the stance of neither believer nor skeptic, he chose simply to bear honest witness to the patterns he saw."

Abby Wolf

2 Volumes, 15 x 21 cm, 590 pgs