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18 | <h1>William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</h1> | |
19 | <div class="contents"> | |
20 | <dl> | |
21 | <dt> | |
22 | <a href="#sec1">William James - Varieties of Religious Experience (<code>In progress</code>)</a> | |
23 | </dt> | |
24 | <dd> | |
25 | <dl> | |
26 | <dt> | |
27 | <a href="#sec2">Lectures I and II</a> | |
28 | </dt> | |
29 | <dt> | |
30 | <a href="#sec3">Lecture III: &quot;The Reality of the Unseen&quot;</a> | |
31 | </dt> | |
32 | <dt> | |
33 | <a href="#sec4">Lectures IV and V: &quot;The Religion of Healthy Mindedness&quot;</a> | |
34 | </dt> | |
35 | <dt> | |
36 | <a href="#sec5">Lectures VI and VII: &quot;The Sick Soul&quot;</a> | |
37 | </dt> | |
38 | <dt> | |
39 | <a href="#sec6">Lecture VIII: &quot;The Divided Self, and the Process of Its Unificiation&quot;</a> | |
40 | </dt> | |
41 | <dt> | |
42 | <a href="#sec7">Lectures IX and X: &quot;Conversion&quot;</a> | |
43 | </dt> | |
44 | <dt> | |
45 | <a href="#sec8">Lectures XI - XIII: Saintliness</a> | |
46 | </dt> | |
47 | <dt> | |
48 | <a href="#sec9">Lectures XIV-XV: The Value of Saintliness</a> | |
49 | </dt> | |
50 | </dl> | |
51 | </dd> | |
52 | </dl> | |
53 | </div> | |
54 | ||
55 | ||
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57 | <h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a> | |
2aff8b5c | 58 | William James - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/621">Varieties of Religious Experience</a> (<code>In progress</code>)</h2> |
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77 | <p>The <em>Varieties of Religious Experience</em> is a set of twenty lectures on | |
78 | religious experience from a psychological perspective. The quality of | |
79 | the method used is a bit suspect, but my understanding is that it was | |
80 | one of the first pyschological surveys of religion, and so could | |
81 | perhaps be forgiven of a few flaws.</p> | |
82 | ||
83 | <p>I found parts to be boring, and others to have flawed reasoning, but | |
84 | with a few lectures that were interesting. At the very least the | |
85 | lectures give a reasonable glimpse into the religous fashion of the | |
86 | late 1800s. There is a small bit of social commentary thrown in that | |
87 | is cited by John Gatto in his <em>Underground History of American | |
88 | Education</em>, which is why I chose to read this.</p> | |
89 | ||
90 | <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a> | |
91 | Lectures I and II</h3> | |
92 | ||
93 | <p class="first">The first two lectures lay the groundwork for the lecture series. The | |
94 | first covers a few views on what religious experience is, and gives | |
95 | refutations (although not terribly good ones now, perhaps they were | |
96 | seen as fine in the early 1900s) to a few deterministic theories. The | |
97 | second lecture defines the scope of the topic to be covered, and | |
98 | limits the definitions of religion and spirituality.</p> | |
99 | ||
100 | ||
101 | <blockquote> | |
102 | <p class="quoted"> | |
103 | Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall | |
104 | mean for us <em>the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in | |
105 | their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in | |
106 | relation to whatever they may consider the divine</em>. Since the | |
107 | relation may be either moral, physical, or ritual, it is evident that | |
108 | out of religion in the sense in which we take it, theologies, | |
109 | philosophies, and ecclesiastical organizations may secondarily grow. | |
110 | In these lectures, however, as I have already said, the immediate | |
111 | personal experiences will amply fill our time, and we shall hardly | |
112 | consider theology or ecclesiasticism at all.</p> | |
113 | ||
114 | </blockquote> | |
115 | ||
116 | <p>In the second lecture James's first extremely arbitrary distinction is | |
117 | made; he compares the stoicism espoused by Marcus Aurelius to | |
118 | Christian writings and draws what I think is a nonexistent difference | |
119 | between the two. It is my opinion that the Stoic is just as religious | |
120 | by James's definition as the Christian; the stoic merely sees the | |
121 | Universe as his god and makes conformance to the natural order his | |
122 | ideal. The Stoic actively embraces the natural order just as the | |
123 | Christian actively loves his god; the difference is merely in whether | |
124 | God is seen as a definite individual or not.</p> | |
125 | ||
126 | <blockquote> | |
127 | <p class="quoted"> | |
128 | If we compare stoic with Christian ejaculations we see much more | |
129 | than a difference of doctrine; rather is it a difference of | |
130 | emotional mood that parts them. When Marcus Aurelius reflects on | |
131 | the eternal reason that has ordered things, there is a frosty | |
132 | chill about his words which you rarely find in a Jewish, and | |
133 | never in a Christian piece of religious writing. The universe is | |
134 | "accepted" by all these writers; but how devoid of passion or | |
135 | exultation the spirit of the Roman Emperor is! Compare his fine | |
136 | sentence: "If gods care not for me or my children, here is a | |
137 | reason for it," with Job's cry: "Though he slay me, yet will I | |
138 | trust in him!" and you immediately see the difference I mean. | |
139 | The anima mundi, to whose disposal of his own personal destiny | |
140 | the Stoic consents, is there to be respected and submitted to, | |
141 | but the Christian God is there to be loved; and the difference of | |
142 | emotional atmosphere is like that between an arctic climate and | |
143 | the tropics, though the outcome in the way of accepting actual | |
144 | conditions uncomplainingly may seem in abstract terms to be much | |
145 | the same.</p> | |
146 | ||
147 | </blockquote> | |
148 | ||
149 | ||
150 | <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a> | |
151 | Lecture III: &quot;The Reality of the Unseen&quot;</h3> | |
152 | ||
153 | <p class="first">The third lecture consists of a brief overview of various | |
154 | interpretations of the structure of the unseen world. An argument for | |
155 | a dualistic universe is then given using a few passages on spiritual | |
156 | encounters as supposed proof. James criticizes strict rationalism as | |
157 | well.</p> | |
158 | ||
159 | <blockquote> | |
160 | <p class="quoted"> | |
161 | Nevertheless, if we look on man's whole mental life as it exists, on | |
162 | the life of men that lies in them apart from their learning and | |
163 | science, and that they inwardly and privately follow, we have to | |
164 | confess that the part of it of which rationalism can give an account | |
165 | is relatively superficial. It is the part that has the prestige | |
166 | undoubtedly, for it has the loquacity, it can challenge you for | |
167 | proofs, and chop logic, and put you down with words. But it will fail | |
168 | to convince or convert you all the same, if your dumb intuitions are | |
169 | opposed to its conclusions. If you have intuitions at all, they come | |
170 | from a deeper level of your nature than the loquacious level which | |
171 | rationalism inhabits. Your whole subconscious life, your impulses, | |
172 | your faiths, your needs, your divinations, have prepared the premises, | |
173 | of which your consciousness now feels the weight of the result; and | |
174 | something in you absolutely <em>knows</em> that that result must be truer than | |
175 | any logic-chopping rationalistic talk, however clever, that may | |
176 | contradict it. This inferiority of the rationalistic level in | |
177 | founding belief is just as manifest when rationalism argues for | |
178 | religion as when it argues against it. That vast literature of proofs | |
179 | of God's existence drawn from the order of nature, which a century ago | |
180 | seemed so overwhelmingly convincing, to-day does little more than | |
181 | gather dust in libraries, for the simple reason that our generation | |
182 | has ceased to believe in the kind of God it argued for. Whatever sort | |
183 | of a being God may be, we <em>know</em> to-day that he is nevermore that mere | |
184 | external inventor of "contrivances" intended to make manifest his | |
185 | "glory" in which our great-grandfathers took such satisfaction, though | |
186 | just how we know this we cannot possibly make clear by words either to | |
187 | others or to ourselves. I defy any of you here fully to account for | |
188 | your persuasion that if a God exist he must be a more cosmic and | |
189 | tragic personage than that Being.</p> | |
190 | ||
191 | </blockquote> | |
192 | ||
193 | ||
194 | <h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a> | |
195 | Lectures IV and V: &quot;The Religion of Healthy Mindedness&quot;</h3> | |
196 | ||
197 | <p class="first">Lecture IV is an interesting read and surveys a few positive minded | |
198 | philosophies, but Lecture V focuses entirely on the <em>mind-cure</em> | |
199 | movement. William James then gives a terrible argument for the | |
200 | validity of <em>mind-cure</em>, and compares it to science while neglecting the | |
201 | complete lack of objectivity in the methods of test the effects of | |
202 | <em>mind-cure</em>.</p> | |
203 | ||
204 | <blockquote> | |
205 | <p class="quoted"> | |
206 | It is a deliberately optimistic scheme of life, with both a | |
207 | speculative and a practical side. In its gradual development during | |
208 | the last quarter of a century, it has taken up into itself a number | |
209 | of contributory elements, and it must now be reckoned with as a | |
210 | genuine religious power. It has reached the stage, for example, when | |
211 | the demand for its literature is great enough for insincere stuff, | |
212 | mechanically produced for the market, to be to a certain extent | |
213 | supplied by publishers—a phenomenon never observed, I imagine, until | |
214 | a religion has got well past its earliest insecure beginnings.</p> | |
215 | <p class="quoted">...</p> | |
216 | <p class="quoted">The plain fact remains that the spread of the movement has been | |
217 | due to practical fruits, and the extremely practical turn of | |
218 | character of the American people has never been better shown than | |
219 | by the fact that this, their only decidedly original contribution | |
220 | to the systematic philosophy of life, should be so intimately | |
221 | knit up with concrete therapeutics. To the importance of | |
222 | mind-cure the medical and clerical professions in the United | |
223 | States are beginning, though with much recalcitrancy and | |
224 | protesting, to open their eyes. It is evidently bound to develop | |
225 | still farther, both speculatively and practically, and its latest | |
226 | writers are far and away the ablest of the group. It matters | |
227 | nothing that, just as there are hosts of persons who cannot pray, | |
228 | so there are greater hosts who cannot by any possibility be | |
229 | influenced by the mind-curers' ideas. For our immediate purpose, | |
230 | the important point is that so large a number should exist who | |
231 | <em>can</em> be so influenced. They form a psychic type to be studied | |
232 | with respect.</p> | |
233 | ||
234 | </blockquote> | |
235 | ||
236 | <p>The lectures are ended with an argument for the validity of <em>mind-cure</em> | |
237 | that compares it directly to science with a clear anti-science bias.</p> | |
238 | ||
239 | <blockquote> | |
240 | <p class="quoted"> | |
241 | These are exceedingly trivial instances [<em>the first-hand accounts of | |
242 | mind-cure working given in the lecture</em>], but in them, if we | |
243 | have anything at all, we have the method of experiment and | |
244 | verification. For the point I am driving at now, it makes no | |
245 | difference whether you consider the patients to be deluded | |
246 | victims of their imagination or not. That they seemed to | |
247 | <em>themselves</em> to have been cured by the experiments tried was enough | |
248 | to make them converts to the system. And although it is evident | |
249 | that one must be of a certain mental mould to get such results | |
250 | (for not every one can get thus cured to his own satisfaction any | |
251 | more than every one can be cured by the first regular | |
252 | practitioner whom he calls in), yet it would surely be pedantic | |
253 | and over-scrupulous for those who <em>can</em> get their savage and | |
254 | primitive philosophy of mental healing verified in such | |
255 | experimental ways as this, to give them up at word of command for | |
256 | more scientific therapeutics.</p> | |
257 | <p class="quoted">What are we to think of all this? Has science made too wide a | |
258 | claim?</p> | |
259 | <p class="quoted">I believe that the claims of the sectarian scientist are, to say | |
260 | the least, premature. The experiences which we have been | |
261 | studying during this hour (and a great many other kinds of | |
262 | religious experiences are like them) plainly show the universe to | |
263 | be a more many-sided affair than any sect, even the scientific | |
264 | sect, allows for. What, in the end, are all our verifications | |
265 | but experiences that agree with more or less isolated systems of | |
266 | ideas (conceptual systems) that our minds have framed? But why | |
267 | in the name of common sense need we assume that only one such | |
268 | system of ideas can be true? The obvious outcome of our total | |
269 | experience is that the world can be handled according to many | |
270 | systems of ideas, and is so handled by different men, and will | |
271 | each time give some characteristic kind of profit, for which he | |
272 | cares, to the handler, while at the same time some other kind of | |
273 | profit has to be omitted or postponed. Science gives to all of | |
274 | us telegraphy, electric lighting, and diagnosis, and succeeds in | |
275 | preventing and curing a certain amount of disease. Religion in | |
276 | the shape of mind-cure gives to some of us serenity, moral poise, | |
277 | and happiness, and prevents certain forms of disease as well as | |
278 | science does, or even better in a certain class of persons. | |
279 | Evidently, then, the science and the religion are both of them | |
280 | genuine keys for unlocking the world's treasure-house to him who | |
281 | can use either of them practically. Just as evidently neither is | |
282 | exhaustive or exclusive of the other's simultaneous use. And | |
283 | why, after all, may not the world be so complex as to consist of | |
284 | many interpenetrating spheres of reality, which we can thus | |
285 | approach in alternation by using different conceptions and | |
286 | assuming different attitudes, just as mathematicians handle the | |
287 | same numerical and spatial facts by geometry, by analytical | |
288 | geometry, by algebra, by the calculus, or by quaternions, and | |
289 | each time come out right? On this view religion and science, | |
290 | each verified in its own way from hour to hour and from life to | |
291 | life, would be co-eternal. Primitive thought, with its belief in | |
292 | individualized personal forces, seems at any rate as far as ever | |
293 | from being driven by science from the field to-day. Numbers of | |
294 | educated people still find it the directest experimental channel | |
295 | by which to carry on their intercourse with reality</p> | |
296 | ||
297 | </blockquote> | |
298 | ||
299 | <p>He draws a very strong conclusion that would be difficult to draw from | |
300 | even quality evidence and objective trials; this drawn from subjective | |
301 | personal accounts with no controlled testing method. A representative | |
302 | example follows of his evidence follows.</p> | |
303 | ||
304 | <blockquote> | |
305 | <p class="quoted"> | |
306 | "One of my first experiences in applying my teaching was two | |
307 | months after I first saw the healer. I fell, spraining my right | |
308 | ankle, which I had done once four years before, having then had | |
309 | to use a crutch and elastic anklet for some months, and carefully | |
310 | guarding it ever since. As soon as I was on my feet I made the | |
311 | positive suggestion (and felt it through all my being): 'There | |
312 | is nothing but God, and all life comes from him perfectly. I | |
313 | cannot be sprained or hurt, I will let him take care of it.' | |
314 | Well, I never had a sensation in it, and I walked two miles that | |
315 | day."</p> | |
316 | ||
317 | </blockquote> | |
318 | ||
319 | <p>Ignoring any other problems in William James's argument, it is clear | |
320 | that his conclusion is far too heavy to rest upon the evidence he has | |
321 | chosen to use.</p> | |
322 | ||
323 | ||
324 | <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a> | |
325 | Lectures VI and VII: &quot;The Sick Soul&quot;</h3> | |
326 | ||
327 | <p class="first">The lectures on the Sick Soul are filled with rather weak quotations | |
328 | (excepting a few short passages of Tolstoy). The reader is reminded | |
329 | over and over how terrible and painful it is to be working through | |
330 | these horrid expressions of melancholy which aren't really so | |
331 | terrible.</p> | |
332 | ||
333 | <p>James's view is that a state of melancholy is merely a transitional | |
334 | stage that comes before a second mental birth occurs, and allows for a | |
335 | deep religious belief to set in. Most of the remainder of the lecture | |
336 | series is dedicated to analyzing the mind of the Second Born which he | |
337 | sees are far deeper spiritually than the simple positive Once Born | |
338 | type (depsite his previous praise of <em>mind-cure</em>).</p> | |
339 | ||
340 | ||
341 | <h3><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a> | |
342 | Lecture VIII: &quot;The Divided Self, and the Process of Its Unificiation&quot;</h3> | |
343 | ||
344 | <p class="first">Here the lectures return to things mildly interesting with an overview | |
345 | of heterogenous personalities and a few passages on unificiation of | |
346 | conflicting desires. James splits unificiations into gradual and | |
347 | sudden ones giving examples of each. This lecture is the bridge | |
348 | between lectures V through VII and the material on conversion.</p> | |
349 | ||
350 | ||
351 | <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a> | |
352 | Lectures IX and X: &quot;Conversion&quot;</h3> | |
353 | ||
354 | ||
355 | <ul> | |
356 | <li>conversion allows for unification of divided self</li> | |
357 | <li>Definition of Association</li> | |
358 | <li>Conversion is sudden change of <em>the habitual center of personal energy</em></li> | |
359 | <li>Examples of conversion | |
360 | ||
361 | <ul> | |
362 | <li>Common people, stereotypical conversion types</li> | |
363 | <li>Seemingly of suspect quality</li> | |
364 | </ul></li> | |
365 | <li>Note of the trouble of not being able to be religious | |
366 | ||
367 | <ul> | |
368 | <li>Painted in a negative light!</li> | |
369 | </ul></li> | |
370 | ||
371 | <li>Focus on instantaneous conversion | |
372 | ||
373 | <ul> | |
374 | <li>Give prototypical example</li> | |
375 | </ul></li> | |
376 | </ul> | |
377 | ||
378 | <blockquote> | |
379 | <p class="quoted"> | |
380 | "Coming out of the cafe I met the carriage of Monsieur B. [the | |
381 | proselyting friend]. He stopped and invited me in for a drive, | |
382 | but first asked me to wait for a few minutes whilst he attended | |
383 | to some duty at the church of San Andrea delle Fratte. Instead | |
384 | of waiting in the carriage, I entered the church myself to look | |
385 | at it. The church of San Andrea was poor, small, and empty; I | |
386 | believe that I found myself there almost alone. No work of art | |
387 | attracted my attention; and I passed my eyes mechanically over | |
388 | its interior without being arrested by any particular thought. I | |
389 | can only remember an entirely black dog which went trotting and | |
390 | turning before me as I mused. In an instant the dog had | |
391 | disappeared, the whole church had vanished, I no longer saw | |
392 | anything, . . . or more truly I saw, O my God, one thing alone. | |
393 | "Heavens, how can I speak of it? Oh no! human words cannot | |
394 | attain to expressing the inexpressible. Any description, however | |
395 | sublime it might be, could be but a profanation of the | |
396 | unspeakable truth.</p> | |
397 | <p class="quoted">"I was there prostrate on the ground, bathed in my tears, with my | |
398 | heart beside itself, when M. B. called me back to life. I could | |
399 | not reply to the questions which followed from him one upon the | |
400 | other. But finally I took the medal which I had on my breast, | |
401 | and with all the effusion of my soul I kissed the image of the | |
402 | Virgin, radiant with grace, which it bore. Oh, indeed, it was | |
403 | She! It was indeed She! [What he had seen had been a vision of | |
404 | the Virgin.]</p> | |
405 | <p class="quoted">"I did not know where I was: I did not know whether I was | |
406 | Alphonse or another. I only felt myself changed and believed | |
407 | myself another me; I looked for myself in myself and did not find | |
408 | myself. In the bottom of my soul I felt an explosion of the most | |
409 | ardent joy; I could not speak; I had no wish to reveal what had | |
410 | happened. But I felt something solemn and sacred within me which | |
411 | made me ask for a priest. I was led to one; and there alone, | |
412 | after he had given me the positive order, I spoke as best I | |
413 | could, kneeling, and with my heart still trembling. I could give | |
414 | no account to myself of the truth of which I had acquired a | |
415 | knowledge and a faith. All that I can say is that in an instant | |
416 | the bandage had fallen from my eyes, and not one bandage only, | |
417 | but the whole manifold of bandages in which I had been brought | |
418 | up. One after another they rapidly disappeared, even as the mud | |
419 | and ice disappear under the rays of the burning sun."</p> | |
420 | ||
421 | </blockquote> | |
422 | ||
423 | <ul> | |
424 | <li>Notes recent protestant phenomemon of instantaneous conversion</li> | |
425 | <li>Gives psychological explanation for instant conversion | |
426 | ||
427 | <ul> | |
428 | <li>Field of conciousness</li> | |
429 | <li>Subconcious on margin | |
430 | ||
431 | <ul> | |
432 | <li>Subconcious life can affect concious existance</li> | |
433 | <li>Note: cites Freud & friends as reliable</li> | |
434 | </ul></li> | |
435 | </ul></li> | |
436 | </ul> | |
437 | ||
438 | <blockquote> | |
439 | <p class="quoted"> | |
440 | In the wonderful explorations by Binet, Janet, Breuer, Freud, | |
441 | Mason, Prince, and others, of the subliminal consciousness of | |
442 | patients with hysteria, we have revealed to us whole systems of | |
443 | underground life, in the shape of memories of a painful sort | |
444 | which lead a parasitic existence, buried outside of the primary | |
445 | fields of consciousness, and making irruptions thereinto with | |
446 | hallucinations, pains, convulsions, paralyses of feeling and of | |
447 | motion, and the whole procession of symptoms of hysteric disease | |
448 | of body and of mind. Alter or abolish by suggestion these | |
449 | subconscious memories, and the patient immediately gets well. | |
450 | His symptoms were automatisms, in Mr. Myers's sense of the word. | |
451 | These clinical records sound like fairy-tales when one first | |
452 | reads them, yet it is impossible to doubt their accuracy; and, | |
453 | the path having been once opened by these first observers, | |
454 | similar observations have been made elsewhere. They throw, as I | |
455 | said, a wholly new light upon our natural constitution.</p> | |
456 | ||
457 | </blockquote> | |
458 | ||
459 | <ul> | |
460 | <li>Conversion is a transfer of energies from the subconcious | |
461 | ||
462 | <ul> | |
463 | <li>Changes center of focus in the field of conciousness | |
464 | ||
465 | <ul> | |
466 | <li>Disproves religious nature of instant conversion argument</li> | |
467 | </ul></li> | |
468 | </ul></li> | |
469 | <li>Notes that there are no discernable differences between instant | |
470 | converts and slow converts</li> | |
471 | </ul> | |
472 | ||
473 | <blockquote> | |
474 | <p class="quoted"> | |
475 | The believers in the non-natural character of sudden conversion | |
476 | have had practically to admit that there is no unmistakable | |
477 | class-mark distinctive of all true converts. The super-normal | |
478 | incidents, such as voices and visions and overpowering | |
479 | impressions of the meaning of suddenly presented scripture texts, | |
480 | the melting emotions and tumultuous affections connected with the | |
481 | crisis of change, may all come by way of nature, or worse still, | |
482 | be counterfeited by Satan. The real witness of the spirit to the | |
483 | second birth is to be found only in the disposition of the | |
484 | genuine child of God, the permanently patient heart, the love of | |
485 | self eradicated. And this, it has to be admitted, is also found | |
486 | in those who pass no crisis, and may even be found outside of | |
487 | Christianity altogether.</p> | |
488 | ||
489 | </blockquote> | |
490 | ||
491 | <ul> | |
492 | <li>Instant conversion is a natural result of exposing a person with a | |
493 | rich subconcious existence to religion and is merely one type of | |
494 | conversion</li> | |
495 | </ul> | |
496 | ||
497 | <blockquote> | |
498 | <p class="quoted"> | |
499 | Sharp distinctions are difficult in these regions, and Professor Coe's | |
500 | numbers are small. But his methods were careful, and the results | |
501 | tally with what one might expect; and they seem, on the whole, to | |
502 | justify his practical conclusion, which is that if you should expose | |
503 | to a converting influence a subject in whom three factors unite: | |
504 | first, pronounced emotional sensibility; second, tendency to | |
505 | automatisms; and third, suggestibility of the passive type; you might | |
506 | then safely predict the result: there would be a sudden conversion, a | |
507 | transformation of the striking kind.</p> | |
508 | ||
509 | </blockquote> | |
510 | ||
511 | <ul> | |
512 | <li>Finishes with discussion of pre-conversion emotion | |
513 | ||
514 | <ul> | |
515 | <li>Usually melancholy</li> | |
516 | <li>Disguist at sin</li> | |
517 | </ul></li> | |
518 | <li>Post Conversion feeling | |
519 | ||
520 | <ul> | |
521 | <li>New self</li> | |
522 | <li>Clean</li> | |
523 | </ul></li> | |
524 | </ul> | |
525 | ||
526 | ||
527 | <h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a> | |
528 | Lectures XI - XIII: Saintliness</h3> | |
529 | ||
530 | <ul> | |
531 | <li>Descriptive assement of fruits of conversion | |
532 | ||
533 | <ul> | |
534 | <li>general discussion of what causes differing character | |
535 | ||
536 | <ul> | |
537 | <li>Impulse vs Inhibition | |
538 | ||
539 | <ul> | |
540 | <li>Strong emotions shut down inhibition</li> | |
541 | </ul></li> | |
542 | </ul></li> | |
543 | <li>Application of general principles to the results of conversion | |
544 | ||
545 | <ul> | |
546 | <li>Top over point -> God works through Subliminal</li> | |
547 | <li>Ignore how the Subliminal works | |
548 | ||
549 | <ul> | |
550 | <li>[It seems that this is done to avoid concluding that there is | |
551 | no god]</li> | |
552 | <li>[Minimization of importance of natural processes in | |
553 | post-convesion]</li> | |
554 | </ul></li> | |
555 | <li>Saintliness | |
556 | ||
557 | <ul> | |
558 | <li>Four universal inner conditions</li> | |
559 | <li>Four results of the inner conditions</li> | |
560 | <li>EXAMPLES | |
561 | ||
562 | <ul> | |
563 | <li>Prescence of a higher & friendly power</li> | |
564 | <li>Charity (agape) love | |
565 | ||
566 | <ul> | |
567 | <li>Charity not unique to theistic religions, therefore it | |
568 | should be seen as coordinate rather than subordinate to | |
569 | the topic of the lecture series (page 296)</li> | |
570 | </ul></li> | |
571 | <li>Inward Tranquillity | |
572 | ||
573 | <ul> | |
574 | <li>Sombre constitution results in resignation and submission</li> | |
575 | <li>Cheerful constitution results in joyous consent</li> | |
576 | </ul></li> | |
577 | <li>Purity | |
578 | ||
579 | <ul> | |
580 | <li>Internal discord leads to suffering</li> | |
581 | </ul></li> | |
582 | <li>Ascetecism | |
583 | ||
584 | <ul> | |
585 | <li>result of extreme pursuit of purity</li> | |
586 | <li>List of sources of ascetic behavior</li> | |
587 | <li>Ascetecism in monks | |
588 | ||
589 | <ul> | |
590 | <li>Obedience | |
591 | ||
592 | <ul> | |
593 | <li>Low reasons | |
594 | ||
595 | <ul> | |
596 | <li>Obedience expedient in ecclesiastical organizations</li> | |
597 | <li>External counsel at certain times is better than | |
598 | internal</li> | |
599 | </ul></li> | |
600 | <li>High Reason | |
601 | ||
602 | <ul> | |
603 | <li>Inner softening</li> | |
604 | </ul></li> | |
605 | <li>Catholic view as sacrifice | |
606 | ||
607 | <ul> | |
608 | <li>[quote p.274 "sacrifice which man offers to God..."]</li> | |
609 | <li>passages by member of the order of St Ignatius</li> | |
610 | </ul></li> | |
611 | </ul></li> | |
612 | <li>Poverty | |
613 | ||
614 | <ul> | |
615 | <li>Things steal freedom, therefore a life of doing/being | |
616 | is superior</li> | |
617 | </ul></li> | |
618 | </ul></li> | |
619 | </ul></li> | |
620 | </ul></li> | |
621 | </ul></li> | |
622 | </ul></li> | |
623 | </ul></li> | |
624 | </ul> | |
625 | ||
626 | ||
627 | <h3><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a> | |
628 | Lectures XIV-XV: The Value of Saintliness</h3> | |
629 | ||
630 | <ul> | |
631 | <li>Critique of Saintliness | |
632 | ||
633 | <ul> | |
634 | <li>Using empirical methods (unlike Catholics) | |
635 | ||
636 | <ul> | |
637 | <li>Humans cannot differentiate between natural and supernatural | |
638 | effects</li> | |
639 | </ul></li> | |
640 | <li>(Defense of Methodology) | |
641 | ||
642 | <ul> | |
643 | <li>Current religious views result of empiricism | |
644 | ||
645 | <ul> | |
646 | <li>Rejection of former gods over time as they cease to serve our | |
647 | needs</li> | |
648 | </ul></li> | |
649 | <li>Must be skeptical (not unreasonably so however) of current | |
650 | beliefs | |
651 | ||
652 | <ul> | |
653 | <li>Humans are fallible; admitting this brings us closer to truth | |
654 | by enabling discussion of flaws in beliefs</li> | |
655 | <li>Quite probably that no one religion is entirely correct</li> | |
656 | </ul></li> | |
657 | </ul></li> | |
658 | </ul></li> | |
659 | <li>Concerned with personal religious experiences, and not with | |
660 | instutitional religion [reiteration from second lecture] | |
661 | ||
662 | <ul> | |
663 | <li>Ideas of a prophet -> heterodoxy -> heresy (if accepted by | |
664 | others) -> orthodxy (if survives persection) | |
665 | ||
666 | <ul> | |
667 | <li>Cycle then begins anew</li> | |
668 | </ul></li> | |
669 | <li>Religion itself cannot be blamed for evils committed</li> | |
670 | </ul></li> | |
671 | <li>Extreme Saintliness due to excess | |
672 | ||
673 | <ul> | |
674 | <li>In men, excess is due to lack of balance, or excessively strong | |
675 | personality elements mixed with weak ones | |
676 | ||
677 | <ul> | |
678 | <li>If all faculities are strong and cooperate one has a strong | |
679 | character rather than one plagued by excess</li> | |
680 | <li>Extremely saintly people have strong spiritual faculities, but | |
681 | deficient ability to perceive extravagane | |
682 | ||
683 | <ul> | |
684 | <li>Leads to excessie self-denial</li> | |
685 | <li>Still useful as archetypes</li> | |
686 | </ul></li> | |
687 | </ul></li> | |
688 | </ul></li> | |
689 | <li>Four Virtues & Unbalanced Forms | |
690 | ||
691 | <ul> | |
692 | <li>Devoutness | |
693 | ||
694 | <ul> | |
695 | <li>Fanatacism | |
696 | ||
697 | <ul> | |
698 | <li>Strong character mixed with narrow mind</li> | |
699 | </ul></li> | |
700 | <li>Theopathy (cointed by WJ to describe excess devoutness) | |
701 | ||
702 | <ul> | |
703 | <li>Excess of devotion with feeble mind</li> | |
704 | <li>Person becomes absorbed in inward love of/from God</li> | |
705 | </ul></li> | |
706 | </ul></li> | |
707 | <li>Purity | |
708 | ||
709 | <ul> | |
710 | <li>Narrow mindedness results on love of God replacing all other | |
711 | love</li> | |
712 | <li>In aggressive types stamps external disorder from existence</li> | |
713 | <li>In passive types disorder is eliminated internall by secluding | |
714 | self | |
715 | ||
716 | <ul> | |
717 | <li>Example: Lous of Gonzaga</li> | |
718 | <li>Such a life was seen as good in the 16th century, but in the | |
719 | early 20th was seen as repulsive due to secular changes (more | |
720 | value being placed on helping society than merely saving | |
721 | oneself)</li> | |
722 | </ul></li> | |
723 | </ul></li> | |
724 | <li>Charity / Tenderness | |
725 | ||
726 | <ul> | |
727 | <li>Saintly 'Resist No Evil' versus Worldy Pragmatic Standpoint | |
728 | ||
729 | <ul> | |
730 | <li>No simple answer</li> | |
731 | </ul></li> | |
732 | <li>Perfect conduct relation between actor, objects acted upon, and | |
733 | recipients of the action | |
734 | ||
735 | <ul> | |
736 | <li>Best intentions fail when executed incorrectly or addressed | |
737 | to the wrong recipient</li> | |
738 | <li>Thus cannot judge charity by actor alone</li> | |
739 | </ul></li> | |
740 | <li>Saintly charity works in a perfect world | |
741 | ||
742 | <ul> | |
743 | <li>Excessive in the World That Is</li> | |
744 | <li>Evil takes advantage of charity</li> | |
745 | <li>However, the world would be far worse without charitable | |
746 | people | |
747 | ||
748 | <ul> | |
749 | <li>Treating others charitably inspires others to become | |
750 | better</li> | |
751 | <li>Exposure to an excessively charitable person softens a | |
752 | person</li> | |
753 | <li>Without this type all would lie in spiritual stagnation</li> | |
754 | </ul></li> | |
755 | <li>Therefore even excessive charity has value | |
756 | ||
757 | <ul> | |
758 | <li>Force destroys enemies</li> | |
759 | <li>Prudence at best resists enemies</li> | |
760 | <li>Non-resistance / Charity turns enemies into friends</li> | |
761 | </ul></li> | |
762 | <li>Though excessive, the saint makes the world a better place | |
763 | ||
764 | <ul> | |
765 | <li>Compare to Utopianists and Anarchists</li> | |
766 | </ul></li> | |
767 | </ul></li> | |
768 | </ul></li> | |
769 | <li>Ascetecism | |
770 | ||
771 | <ul> | |
772 | <li>Virtue most prone to excess</li> | |
773 | <li>It seems at first those wo are excessively ascetic are still | |
774 | inwardly attached to the world | |
775 | ||
776 | <ul> | |
777 | <li>If one were truly liberated he would not need excessive | |
778 | moritification</li> | |
779 | </ul></li> | |
780 | <li>Different view: Ascetic sees wrongs in the world, and rather | |
781 | than ignore them he conquers them internally | |
782 | ||
783 | <ul> | |
784 | <li>One who does not fear Death seems strong</li> | |
785 | </ul></li> | |
786 | <li>Ascetecism is a profounder way of handling excistence than | |
787 | simple optimistic naturalism | |
788 | ||
789 | <ul> | |
790 | <li>In the modern time, people should throw away useless | |
791 | asceticism and embrace useful aspects</li> | |
792 | <li>Attributes of early 20th century life and weakened churching | |
793 | breed weaker character | |
794 | ||
795 | <ul> | |
796 | <li>Militarism used as a subtitute for religious ascetecism | |
797 | ||
798 | <ul> | |
799 | <li>Poor subtitute | |
800 | ||
801 | <ul> | |
802 | <li>Speaks to the base and brutish aspects of human nature</li> | |
803 | </ul></li> | |
804 | </ul></li> | |
805 | <li>Ascetic poverty much superior to militarism/war | |
806 | ||
807 | <ul> | |
808 | <li>WJ believes it <strong>must</strong> be embraced to fight evils of the | |
809 | time [quote page 319-320]</li> | |
810 | <li>Desire to gain wealth breeds cowardice and corruption | |
811 | ||
812 | <ul> | |
813 | <li>Wealthy man enslaved to riches</li> | |
814 | <li>Poor man lacks chains | |
815 | - Single attributes of saintliness are found in the non-religious | |
816 | - Combination of all forms is religious in nature | |
817 | - Flows from sense of divine order | |
818 | - Saintly person palces happiness internally rather than deriving | |
819 | from comfort | |
820 | - Saintly attributes mixed with narrow mind results in terrible | |
821 | excessive forms | |
822 | - We should not, however, place blame for narrow mindedness | |
823 | entirely on the individual | |
824 | - Essentials vs Accidents of saintliness | |
825 | - Dislike of Saintly character | |
826 | - Man traditionally worships strong leaders | |
827 | - Saints are weak and passive | |
828 | - Male vs Female nature [think Yin vs Yang] | |
829 | - Many suppose there is one ideal type of character | |
830 | - Empiricism rejects this as foolish | |
831 | - On the one hande the saintly character is better than the | |
832 | strongman becaue he is adapted to life in a perfect society | |
833 | - On the other in the real world he would be ill adapted | |
834 | - Mixture of the two characters useful [think Nietzsche's | |
835 | uebermensch or Taoist] | |
836 | - Saintly character has real value</li> | |
837 | </ul></li> | |
838 | </ul></li> | |
839 | </ul></li> | |
840 | </ul></li> | |
841 | </ul></li> | |
842 | </ul></li> | |
843 | </ul> | |
844 | ||
845 | ||
846 | ||
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873 | <p class="cke-footer"> To Wise Man's Son and Wednesday's Child all is white that is not black |
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