The Hermeneutical Keys to William James’s Philosophy of Religion: Protestant Impulses, Vital Belief

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 301-316
Author(s):  
David J. Zehnder
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
William James ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Biblical Authority ◽  
American Psychologist ◽  
Over Time

This essay argues that the American psychologist and philosopher William James should be viewed in the Lutheran Reformation’s tradition because this viewpoint offers the hermeneutical key to his philosophy of religion. Though James obviously didn’t ascribe to biblical authority, he expressed the following religious sensibilities made possible by Martin Luther and his contemporaries: 1) challenge of prevailing systems, 2) anti-rationalism, 3) being pro-religious experience and dynamic belief, 4) need for a personal, caring God, and also 5) a gospel of religious comfort. This essay asks, in one specific form, how religious concerns can hold steady over time but cause very different expressions of faith.

scholarly journals The History Of Psychotherapy. Lecture 2. Historical Background Of Psychotherapy (Part IV)

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-145
Author(s):  
I.B. Grinshpun
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
William James ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
American Psychologist ◽  
History Of Psychotherapy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

The paper continues the cycle of lectures by Igor Borisovitch Grinshpun on history of psychotherapy. The current part of the lecture recounts the work of American psychologist and philosopher William James. His main works “The Principles of Psychology” and “The Varieties of Religious Experience” are discussed, his ideas on consciousness and personality are considered, and their influence on psychology and psychotherapy is traced. This lecture takes stock of the historical background of psychotherapy and makes a summary of the main events of the 19th century, which either influenced psychotherapy directly or proved significant to the development of psychotherapy. Students and colleagues of I.B. Grinshpun prepared the text for publication: Yana Bovbas, Ekaterina Mazaeva, Maria Marchenkova.

The relationship between English and German ways of doing philosophy of religion

1979 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 247-256
Author(s):  
Anders Jeffner
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
William James ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
German Philosophy ◽  
Close Inspection ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Relationship

From time to time one comes across pronouncements about the difference between English and German philosophy of religion. Such statements often sound plausible enough, but in my experience they will not stand up to any very close inspection. Let me, anyway, take an example of a general pronouncement regarding the relationship between German and English philosophy, a pronouncement which the author applies particularly to philosophy of religion. In The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James states:The Continental schools of philosophy have too often overlooked the fact that man's thinking is organically connected with his conduct.

The Oppressive Elements in Religion and the Religions of the Oppressed

1976 ◽  
Vol 69 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 397-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Long
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
William James ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Ernst Troeltsch

In 1912, Ernst Troeltsch published a memorial review article for William James entitled “Empiricism and Platonism in the Philosophy of Religion.” This article which deals with James' The Varieties of Religious Experience is still the clearest succinct statement of James' position within the context of the general problems of Western philosophies of religion.

Damned for God’s Glory: William James and the Scientific Vindication of Protestant Culture

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Hollinger
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Community Of Inquiry ◽  
William James ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Pivotal Point ◽  
Separate Spheres ◽  
Entire Career ◽  
The One ◽  
Over Time

This chapter interprets William James' entire career in the light of his affinity with the liberal Protestant elite of his time and place on the one hand, and his devotion to the calling of modern science on the other. It takes seriously his many references in Pragmatism to religious searching and indeed to “salvation,” so often left out of account by secular students of his thought. It reads Varieties of Religious Experience as the pivotal point in James' turn from a “separate spheres” defense of religion to an effort to mobilize a community of inquiry willing to test religious claims by experience. Against scholars who prefer to read James' corpus as a synchronic whole, the chapter shows that the meaning of his various works is best grasped when his career is approached diachronically, with each text analyzed according to the stage it marks in the development over time of his preoccupation with religion's relation to science.

Two Arguments Against Some Critics of Religion Based on Feeling and Emotion Following William James

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-224
Author(s):  
Katja Thörner
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
William James ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Ludwig Feuerbach ◽  
Philosophical Interpretation ◽  
The Individual

In this paper I will show that you can distinguish two main types of argumentation in respect to feeling and emotions in the philosophy of religion of William James, which point to two different kind of criticism of religion. Especially in his early works, James argues that you may lawfully adopt religious beliefs on the basis of passional grounds. This argumentation points to a type of criticism of religion, which denies that beliefs based on such emotional grounds may be justified. In his famous study The Varieties of Religious Experience, James defines religious experience as an experience of inner conversion, where the individual gets in touch with a higher self. The philosophical interpretation of religious experience points not at least to a type of criticism of religion in the tradition of Ludwig Feuerbach, which is known as the theory of projection.

scholarly journals Conversas de William James com professores e estudantes: lições para a atualidade

Perspectiva ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 961-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Sérgio Coutinho Matos ◽  
Marcus Vinicius Cunha
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
William James

Este artigo analisa as concepções educacionais de William James no livro Talks to teachers on psychology, de 1899, no qual se encontra a noção de ensino como arte. Para ampliar o entendimento dessa noção, recorre-se às reflexões feitas por James no livro The varieties of religious experience, de 1902. O artigo tem por objetivo revitalizar as concepções jamesianas visando a contribuir com autores que discutem criticamente as tendências dominantes hoje na educação.

scholarly journals Para Além dos Princípios de Psicologia: Evolução e Sentido do Projeto Psicológico de William James

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saulo De Freitas Araújo ◽  
Aldier Félix Honorato
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
William James

William James é uma figura central na história da psicologia e da filosofia. Entretanto, a interpretação de sua obra ainda está repleta de lacunas e mal-entendidos. Por exemplo, a extensão e o sentido do seu projeto psicológico permanecem mal compreendidos. Para muitos autores, James teria abandonado a psicologia após The Principles of Psychology (1890), ao passo que outros entendem o The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) como obra psicológica. O objetivo deste artigo é explorar a questão da evolução do projeto psicológico de James, acompanhando diversos momentos de sua manifestação ao longo de sua carreira. Ao final, vamos defender aquilo que chamamos de tese da pervasividade, segundo a qual a psicologia está presente em toda a obra de James.

scholarly journals Interreligious Learning, Ricoeur, and the Problem of Testimonial and Hermeneutical Injustice

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-223
Author(s):  
Marianne Moyaert
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Critical Potential ◽  
Conversation Partner ◽  
Interreligious Education

Abstract Ricoeur’s philosophy of religion as well as his suggestion that we may consider interreligious dialogue as a specific form of linguistic hospitality has inspired many to think through the challenges of interfaith learning in a post-secular age. I am one of those scholars who have found Ricoeur a particularly helpful conversation partner as I sought to create a nonviolent and transformative space of encounter in my interreligious classroom. In this article, I elaborate on how my lived experiences as an interreligious educator have made me wonder if Ricoeur’s philosophy of religion and his plea for interreligious hospitality are not actually limiting the critical potential of interreligious education. Ricoeur’s interreligious hermeneutics strongly resonates with a modern (Protestant) understanding of religion and its implicit, normative distinction between good (mature) and bad (immature) religiosity, which to this day belongs to the sociopolitical imagination of the majority in most Western European countries (this is certainly true for the Netherlands). It has been my pedagogical experience that this distinction between good and bad religion contributes to and reinforces testimonial and hermeneutical injustice in my classroom, which results in the marginalization of some of my students, especially those whose religious practice does not fit the understanding of what religion ought to be.

Authority in Experience

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Doostdar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Empirical Observation ◽  
Scientific Experiment ◽  
Cumulative Learning ◽  
Over Time

This chapter examines the place of personal experience in contemporary Iranian spirituality, What is known as “experience” is equivalent to the Persian word tajrobeh (Arabic tajriba). The sense of tajriba is linked as scientific experiment or methodical empirical observation to Spiritism. As a kind of experience associated with cumulative learning and mastery over time, a sense of tajrobeh comes close to the German concept of Erfahrung. This chapter first considers the concept of “heart” before discussing tajrobeh in terms of Erlebnis, experience that is more personal, immediate, intense, and perhaps ineffable than what Erfahrung implies. It then explores the views of Arezu Khanum on heart, Abdol-Karim Soroush on religiosity, and Mostafa Malekiyan on spirituality and religious experience. It also shows that in the twentieth century, the terms tajrobeh and Erlebnis converged in Iranian reformist formulations of “religious experience” inspired by modern European thinkers.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document