1 / 15

William James and Psychology of Religion

William James and Psychology of Religion. James A. Van Slyke. William James (1842-1910) . Considered by many to be one of the top psychologists of all time Principles of Psychology (1890) Classic work in psychology Prominent figure in psychology of religion

brac
Download Presentation

William James and Psychology of Religion

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. William James and Psychology of Religion James A. Van Slyke

  2. William James (1842-1910) • Considered by many to be one of the top psychologists of all time • Principles of Psychology (1890) • Classic work in psychology • Prominent figure in psychology of religion • His definition of religious experience is the starting point for most studies in the field • Not particular religious orientation, but recognized the value of religion

  3. Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) • Pure Experience • Experiences were discreet episodes that needed to be analyzed as a whole • Introspection – personal examination of experience • Pluralistic Universe • Religious experiences are not based on a common element • Experiences are diverse and disconnected

  4. Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) • Essence of religion is experience rather than belief • Must investigate individual experiences to understand religion • Religion based on individual feeling (Schleiermacher) • Passionate • Emotional • Energetic

  5. Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) • Institutional religion is less important than individual experiences • Definition of religion: • “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual [persons] in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider divine” (from Varieties) • Varieties contains a number of different accounts of religious experiences

  6. Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) • James struggled with depression for most of his life • Felt that a religious temperament may help with psychological difficulties • Located persons on a continuum • Healthy Minded • Sick Souled • Religious experiences may help the sick souled • Helpful for dealing with psychological problems

  7. Will to Believe (1897) • Three different Aspects of Religion • Alive – live options that must be dealt with • Forced – cannot be skeptical (example of a marriage proposal) • Momentous – something important to be gained

  8. Will to Believe (1897) • Differences in forms of Belief • Scientific – Rational • May be amended with no real bearing on my life • Religious • Too important to wait before choosing • Seeks out what is good • Any decision that is of utmost importance requires an act of faith

  9. Defining Religious Experience • Highly Diverse, Culturally Distinct • Difficult to Define • May be heightened emotional and unusual sensory experiences • Ordinary experiences interpreted through a religious framework • Communion

  10. Defining Religious Experience • Rodney Stark (1997) • Confirming – Sensing the presence of the Divine • Silent time during a prayer • Responsive – Experience of being helped in some aspect of life • Ecstatic – More intense feeling of connectedness with the divine • Glossolalia – speaking in tongues • Revelational – Receiving some sort of special knowledge from the divine • Prophecy

  11. Mysticism • Non-conceptual knowledge of the divine • Characteristics in Varieties • Ineffability – unable to give a verbal description of the event • “Beyond words” • Noetic Quality – Something life-changing has been learned • Transiency – experience lasts for a brief time • Passivity – Feeling like the experience was out of one’s control

  12. Mysticism • Unitive experience • A sense of union with God • Usually a fundamental part of defining a religious experience • Perceiving a unity to God or the Supernatural • Sense of participation in that unity • Paradoxical • Beyond normal reason, cannot be described • Yet, believed to be true • Knowledge was gained, yet can’t describe what that knowledge is

  13. Christian Mysticism • Long history of mysticism in Christian theology • Often occurred in smaller communities seeking solitude with God • Kataphatic tradition (Positive) • Prayer that focuses on praising the many attributes of God (love, grace, compassion, etc.) • Apophatic tradition (negative or lack of knowledge) • Realization of our own ignorance before God • Any positive statement cannot fully describe the divine attributes

  14. Potential Problems • How do you describe the indescribable? • Religious experiences cannot be completely ineffable • Use language to describe them • Use religious imagery and symbols • Translation • Language differences between psychology and religion • Can a nonreligious person understand a religious experience? • Can someone gain a first person perspective of another?

  15. Potential Problems • Methodology • How reliable is introspection? • Can the subjective be transferred into the objective? • Limited to texts written by others and interviews • Was the experience a true experience of the divine? • Point of view • Theoretical stance will change the way the data is interpreted • Is it possible to be ‘objective’ in regard to religion

More Related