the varieties of religious experience audiobook

Also serving as a plea for religious tolerance, the book has some particularly captivating sections, like those on the religion of healthy-mindedness, the sick soul, and mysticism. As a comprehensive survey, the work contributes to the understanding of consciousness, psychological processes, thought, and emotion.Ĭhapter titles include 'Religion & Neurology', 'The Reality of the Unseen', 'The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness', 'The Sick Soul', 'The Divided Self', and 'The Process of Unification, Conversion, Saintliness, Mysticism and Philosophy'. It examines the religion of everyday life and has nothing to do with doctrine or dogma.ĭealing objectively with a wide spectrum of observed and personally related religious experiences, James quotes from the autobiographical writings of famous authors, theologians, and mystics from many traditions including Whitman, Luther, Voltaire, Emerson, and Tolstoy. James considers the feelings, actions, and experiences of individuals, insofar as they understand themselves to be in a relationship with the divine. 'A reader will come away with more reasons to raise new questions than to feel that old ones have been resolved.This landmark work by William James remains one of the most insightful books on psychology and spirituality. 'James' characteristic humor, his ability to put down the pretentious and to be unpretentious, and his willingness to take some risks in his choices of anecdotal data or provocative theories are all apparent in the book,' noted Professor Martin E. James's discussion of conversion, repentance, mysticism, and hopes of reward and fears of punishment in the hereafter-as well as his observations on the religious experiences of such diverse thinkers as Voltaire, Whitman, Emerson, Luther, Tolstoy, and others-all support his thesis. Reflecting the pluralistic views of psychologist-turned-philosopher William James, it posits that individual religious experiences, rather than the tenets of organized religions, form the backbone of religious life.

The book was an immediate bestseller upon its publication in June 1902. Discover the English Audiobook at Audible. I say emotion-like because no single term in Sanskrit and related languages from classical India correlates. The Varieties of Religious Experience as its meant to be heard, narrated by Jim Killavey. The Varieties of Religious Experience By: William James Narrated by: John Pruden Length: 19 hrs and 1 min 4.2 (237 ratings) Try for 0. The Varieties of Religious Experience is certainly the most notable of all books in the field of the psychology of religion and probably destined to be the most influential written on religion in the twentieth century' said Walter Houston Clark in Psychology Today. The I-will-come-to-know-what-is-unknown faculty is just one of 177 emotion-like terms I have collected in Words for the Heart, a treasury of words from ancient and classical India with vignettes that spring them to life. Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time

The varieties of religious experience audiobook