William James: Varieties of Religious Experience - Essay Example

How James distinguishes between human emotions and their religious forms Interestingly William’s “circumscription of the topic” is not focusing on creating an outline for the subject rather it opens the minds of natural theology students to the vastness of the subject and disadvantageous of attempting to define it. William discourages using a single principle or essence to define the theology as many authors have been doing (William 30-32). Why William used variety of religious sentiments rather than a single concept in circumscribing the topic is because he perceived dogmatic conceptual frameworks could only over simplify the many entities in religion rather than providing a useful insight to it. William viewed religion as a “store house” of sentiments to religious people. Further he describes how traditional definitions focus only one sort of sentiments such as feeling of dependence, derivative of fear, sexual life, and feeling of infinite (William 31). In contrary William use collective form of religious essence for introducing the content of subject. In describing psychological entities associated with religions William did not introduce a new set of human emotions. Alternatively he describes common emotions associating with human mind such as love, fear, joy and awe are the same with respect to religion although the factors explaining burgeoning of religious emotions are different. Further, he emphasizes the fact that religious sentiments are different from common human emotions based on concrete grounds. Example, religious love is described as love occurring in human mind directed at a religious object, religious fear is described as human fear occurring from divine retribution and religious awe as thrill occurring at the thought of supernatural relationships in religion (William 31). William advocates all human emotions burgeoning from religious attributes are unique yet not different from common human sentiments which arise from non-religious sources. To be an "explainer" of religion one does not have to have "experienced" it In lecture three “Reality of the Unseen”, William explains the ability of religious concepts and objects to attract devotion from human beings while such attributes may not have been experienced by the practitioners through their common senses. He describes abstract entities in fact are stronger in burgeoning religious sentiments than figurative concepts. Example God, his holiness, justice, mercy and absoluteness are capable of producing vast sentiments in human minds and devotion although few followers may claimed to have experienced them in real (William 61). William avoids rationalizing such abstract objects and concepts providing the fact that such by definition are beyond the human eye and ability of conceptualizing. To support this argument he also provides examples where people claimed to have experienced mysticism (William 64-75). Clearly William does not account comprehending as a must in practicing religions. Further, in lecture sixteen William identifies “an ability to see truth in a special way” as “Mysticism”. Accordingly there are four qualities in mystical experiences. Among these characteristics ineffability or not being able to explain the experience verbally provides evidence to the fact that mystical experiences are not fully comprehended by the practitioners. Noetic or states of deep knowledge indicates that mystic experiences may not incorporate experiencing deity. The practitioner may not know from where such deep knowledge came but could link the religion. Moreover, transiency means mystic experiences can only last a short period of time such as an hour or two while passivity means mystical states are accepted in a passive consciousness (William 371-372). These four characteristics indicate that William does not perceive comprehending or pragmatism as necessary qualities of religious experiences. James thinks a critical science is important in explaining religions In the second lecture William has pointed out philosophic theology could undermined the various entities of religion in an attempt to formulate definitions. Nevertheless in lecture eighteen “Philosophy”, he describes application of philosophic approach into religious experiences. He believes that philosophy could serve religions because mystic experiences characteristically are not systematically communicated by their practitioners. William also agrees to the fact that religion is an area where philosophy is applied. Further he describes religious sentiments are the origin of philosophic theology (William 422-423). On the one hand William points out the fact that philosophy cannot be separated from religion as humans are thinking beings to support applying philosophy into theology. On the other hand he states that mystic experiences are subjective, vague, thus identifying what is right and what is wrong in a religion requires higher scientific techniques. He describes examples where theories of philosophy have been applied in religion such as Principal John Caird’s and Cardinal Newman’s books while pointing out inevitable limitations in such approaches (William 424-425). William finally concludes that classic philosophy is an utter failure in applying to religions because logics and formulas simply cannot assess abstract concepts and objects such as God and deliverances burgeoning enormous religious sentiments in human minds. William does not however confront applying philosophy into religions. He rather points out the importance of transforming philosophy into a critical science by omitting such topics of metaphysics and scientifically absurd doctrines (William 445-447). He believes critical science has a role to play in religions in determining which mystic experiences are random and insignificant while which are worth worshiping and admitting to our lives. Such a critical science and its findings he believes can be useful to both religious and non-religious people in the society (William 446). Work Cited William, James. The Varieties of Religious Experience. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. Online. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/JamVari.html Read More