The Variety of Religious Experience. An Investigation of Human Nature

This edition includes the essential work of American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) "The Variety of Religious Experience," which has long become a classic. Religion is examined by James not as a social institution, but primarily as a personal experience. He defines religion as "a sum of feelings, actions, and experiences of an individual person, as its content establishes its relation to what it reveres as the Divine," combining this with the notion of a "significant state of the soul" of a religious person. James subjected numerous documentary sources to thorough investigation, which allowed him to delve deeper into the value of holiness, the features of mysticism (such as ineffability, intuitive nature, transience, and inactivity of will), explore the phenomenon of religious conversion, which he believed is preceded by a long preparation in the subconscious areas of mental life, and present his own classification of religious personalities (once-born and twice-born), which has not lost its relevance to this day. All of this makes James' work useful for religious scholars, philosophers, psychologists, cultural theorists, as well as anyone interested in the problems of religion.