The Psychology of Religion

For William James, his perspective on religious experience was skeptical. He divided religion between institutional religion and personal religion. For institutional religion he made reference to the religious group or organization that plays a critical part in the culture of a society. Personal religion he defined as when an individual has a mystical experience which can occur regardless of the culture. James was more focused on the personal religious experience, “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in

James the Anabaptist is an example of how Voltaire portrays the world’s suffering. James believed that no one was born evil but “mankind have a little corrupted nature, for they were not born wolves, and they have become wolves” (25). Not everyone has the intention to be

For purpose of this essay, religion will be defined as a collection of institutional beliefs and customs concerning humanity and the purpose of the universe [1]. Key beliefs within religion that will be explored, as well as there relation to reason, are:

The meaning of religion is something that scholars, along with society at large, have attempted to define for centuries. Although the term cannot truly have one solid meaning, it is clear that religion is much more than a set of beliefs and practices. In Religion: The Basics, author Mallory Nye discusses his approach to studying religion. In arguing that culture and religion strongly influence each other, he explains that those studying religion must make people and culture their focus, as variations even within the same religions exist and must be considered. Moreover, Nye explains how religion is, essentially, a universal concept, as it takes form in an array of shapes across the globe. With Nye’s argument, I have developed new insights

James conceived a more practical, and dynamic view of how human beings act. He developed a distinguishable definition of psychology, which identified pragmatism. He defined psychology as the science of mental life, regarding both its phenomena, and conditions (James, 1998, p. 139). The phenomena accounts for what is found in the soul, while the conditions were the antecedents of this mental life. James evaluated the spiritualist, and associationist schools of thought as the two most influential processes which explain the phenomena, and conditions.

James taught at several universities including both Brown and Yale where he often had arguments and lengthy discussions with his students about religion. In his introductory comments, he clearly states that a lot of his freethinking students did not believe one should believe in religion if it cannot be rationally proven. This was contradictory to his thoughts and consequently wrote the paper in order to try sway his students view.

William James was an American psychiatrist and philosopher, born in 1842 and touted as the leader of the philosophical movement of Pragmatism and of the psychological movement of functionalism (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2014). James’ rebuttal to the Clifford’s Ethics of Believe, was the famed Will to Believe.

Henry James’ father was devoted to studying theology, philosophy and mysticism (religion) as he was keen on studying and wanted his

William James was an American philosopher and psychologist who specialized in Pragmatism and philosophy related to such. He led a philosophical revolution in the USA and would make the philosophy known as ¨Pragmatism" very well known. In his book ¨The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy", William explains different philosophical beliefs while also challenging them and supporting the right to believe in a religion or even life itself. William James' style of writing is more Expository mainly due to his explanation of different philosophies/religions but showing pros and cons of many different philosophies.

Friedrich Nietzsche and William James were philosophers who examined the search for truth and its application in modern society. While both scholars were contemporaries and concentrated on the function of truth, Nietzsche’s philosophy advocated a scientific approach which renounced all religious frameworks, while James’ theory enabled one to find the truth even in the metaphysical.

William James studied pragmatism through psychology and religion. James thought originally about philosophy; “The whole function of philosophy ought to be to find out what definite difference it will make to you and me, at definite instants in our life, if this world formula or that world formula be the true one.” In James’ book The Varieties of Religious Experience he took a positive attitude toward religion yet opposed the idealist schools of speculative ideas (Choron 283). James was a very methodical man. “Truth happens to an idea” was another theory of James’. In order for an idea to be true an event

Sigmund Freud was a psychologist known as the ‘father of psychoanalysis’ who believed that our sense of moral understanding is a result of the conditioning of a growing being.

For example, William James studied religious experience and suggested that the spiritual process works to curtail people's negative behaviors (James, 1936). For James, spirituality helps individuals recognize their own earthly suffering as either a consequence of individual pathology or addictive behavior, or both. When people begin to criticize or consciously reject problematic individual behaviors as a permanent way of being, then they become open to the possibility of rising to a higher awareness. This higher awareness of his or her own behavior is then integrated as a part of the person's psychology. James was already considering the role religion plays in a person's consciousness early in the twentieth century.

William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist

     Spirituality and psychology are two complex subjects to discuss and they become even more complicated when you try to relate one to the other. Psychology deals with the processes of sense perception, thinking, learning, cognition, emotions and motivations, and personality, focusing on the behavior of individuals. Spirituality, on the other hand, is all inclusive. “Spirituality is living one's life from the realization that the body/mind/ego personality we have been taught to identify with is just the tip of our iceberg, our little head sticking through the window of the senses into this world, whereas our true body is the universe. It is recognizing that our perceived world is mostly an illusion, a shared