The Varieties of Religious Experience · Chapter
Lecture I: Religion and Neurology explained
In this opening lecture, William James sets the stage for his empirical study of religious experience.
What happens
In this opening lecture, William James sets the stage for his empirical study of religious experience. He argues that religious phenomena, including melancholy, happiness, and trance states, should be examined as natural human experiences rather than as supernatural or isolated events. He introduces the concept of 'medical materialism,' which dismisses religious experiences by attributing them to physiological causes, and counters that such explanations do not negate their spiritual significance. James emphasizes the importance of studying original religious experiences—those of 'geniuses' in religion—who often exhibit signs of nervous instability, using George Fox as a prime example. He advocates for a broad, comparative approach to understanding religion, one that considers both pathological and healthy aspects.
Themes in this chapter
Pathology and Genius in Religion
James explores the link between religious leadership and nervous instability, arguing that psychopathic traits may facilitate access to religious truth.
Empiricism and Existential Analysis
James introduces his empirical method, treating religious experiences as natural phenomena to be studied comparatively and without prejudice.
The Role of Feeling and Emotion
The lecture emphasizes the importance of emotionality in religious experience, particularly in the lives of religious geniuses.
Characters to notice
- William James
The author and lecturer, presenting his empirical method for studying religious experience.
- George Fox
Founder of the Quaker religion, cited as an example of a religious genius with psychopathic traits.
- Saint Paul
Mentioned in the context of medical materialism, which attributes his vision to an epileptic seizure.
- Saint Teresa of Ávila
Cited as an example of a religious figure dismissed by medical materialism as an hysteric.
- Saint Francis of Assisi
Mentioned as another religious leader whose experiences are pathologized by medical materialism.
- Thomas Carlyle
Referenced as a figure whose melancholy is attributed by medical materialism to a gastro-duodenal catarrh.
Key passages
“Religious melancholy, whatever peculiarities it may have qua religious, is at any rate melancholy. Religious happiness is happiness. Religious trance is trance.”
Religious sadness is still sadness, religious joy is still joy, and religious trance is still a trance—they are all part of the broader human experience.
James argues that religious experiences should be studied as variations of universal human states.
“In the psychopathic temperament we have the emotionality which is the sine qua non of moral perception; we have the intensity and tendency to emphasis which are the essence of practical moral vigor; and we have the love of metaphysics and mysticism which carry one's interests beyond the surface of the sensible world.”
The psychopathic temperament provides the emotional depth, intensity, and interest in the metaphysical that are essential for moral and religious insight.
James defends the value of the neurotic temperament in accessing religious truth.
“Medical materialism finishes up Saint Paul by calling his vision on the road to Damascus a discharging lesion of the occipital cortex, he being an epileptic.”
Medical materialism reduces Saint Paul's vision to a brain lesion caused by epilepsy.
James criticizes the reductionist approach of medical materialism.
“To plead the organic causation of a religious state of mind, then, in refutation of its claim to possess superior spiritual value, is quite illogical and arbitrary.”
It is illogical to dismiss the spiritual value of a religious experience simply because it has a physical cause.
James argues that physiological explanations do not negate the significance of religious experiences.
