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16 | <h1>William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</h1> |
17 | <div class="contents"> |
18 | <dl> |
19 | <dt> |
20 | <a href="#sec1">William James - Varieties of Religious Experience (<code>In progress</code>)</a> |
21 | </dt> |
22 | <dd> |
23 | <dl> |
24 | <dt> |
25 | <a href="#sec2">Lectures I and II</a> |
26 | </dt> |
27 | <dt> |
28 | <a href="#sec3">Lecture III: &quot;The Reality of the Unseen&quot;</a> |
29 | </dt> |
30 | <dt> |
31 | <a href="#sec4">Lectures IV and V: &quot;The Religion of Healthy Mindedness&quot;</a> |
32 | </dt> |
33 | <dt> |
34 | <a href="#sec5">Lectures VI and VII: &quot;The Sick Soul&quot;</a> |
35 | </dt> |
36 | <dt> |
37 | <a href="#sec6">Lecture VIII: &quot;The Divided Self, and the Process of Its Unificiation&quot;</a> |
38 | </dt> |
39 | <dt> |
40 | <a href="#sec7">Lectures IX and X: &quot;Conversion&quot;</a> |
41 | </dt> |
42 | <dt> |
43 | <a href="#sec8">Lectures XI - XIII: Saintliness</a> |
44 | </dt> |
45 | <dt> |
46 | <a href="#sec9">Lectures XIV-XV: The Value of Saintliness</a> |
47 | </dt> |
48 | </dl> |
49 | </dd> |
50 | </dl> |
51 | </div> |
52 | |
53 | |
54 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a> |
55 | William James - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/621">Varieties of Religious Experience</a> (<code>In progress</code>)</h2> |
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74 | <p>The <em>Varieties of Religious Experience</em> is a set of twenty lectures on |
75 | religious experience from a psychological perspective. The quality of |
76 | the method used is a bit suspect, but my understanding is that it was |
77 | one of the first pyschological surveys of religion, and so could |
78 | perhaps be forgiven of a few flaws.</p> |
79 | |
80 | <p>I found parts to be boring, and others to have flawed reasoning, but |
81 | with a few lectures that were interesting. At the very least the |
82 | lectures give a reasonable glimpse into the religous fashion of the |
83 | late 1800s. There is a small bit of social commentary thrown in that |
84 | is cited by John Gatto in his <em>Underground History of American |
85 | Education</em>, which is why I chose to read this.</p> |
86 | |
87 | <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a> |
88 | Lectures I and II</h3> |
89 | |
90 | <p class="first">The first two lectures lay the groundwork for the lecture series. The |
91 | first covers a few views on what religious experience is, and gives |
92 | refutations (although not terribly good ones now, perhaps they were |
93 | seen as fine in the early 1900s) to a few deterministic theories. The |
94 | second lecture defines the scope of the topic to be covered, and |
95 | limits the definitions of religion and spirituality.</p> |
96 | |
97 | |
98 | <blockquote> |
99 | <p class="quoted"> |
100 | Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall |
101 | mean for us <em>the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in |
102 | their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in |
103 | relation to whatever they may consider the divine</em>. Since the |
104 | relation may be either moral, physical, or ritual, it is evident that |
105 | out of religion in the sense in which we take it, theologies, |
106 | philosophies, and ecclesiastical organizations may secondarily grow. |
107 | In these lectures, however, as I have already said, the immediate |
108 | personal experiences will amply fill our time, and we shall hardly |
109 | consider theology or ecclesiasticism at all.</p> |
110 | |
111 | </blockquote> |
112 | |
113 | <p>In the second lecture James's first extremely arbitrary distinction is |
114 | made; he compares the stoicism espoused by Marcus Aurelius to |
115 | Christian writings and draws what I think is a nonexistent difference |
116 | between the two. It is my opinion that the Stoic is just as religious |
117 | by James's definition as the Christian; the stoic merely sees the |
118 | Universe as his god and makes conformance to the natural order his |
119 | ideal. The Stoic actively embraces the natural order just as the |
120 | Christian actively loves his god; the difference is merely in whether |
121 | God is seen as a definite individual or not.</p> |
122 | |
123 | <blockquote> |
124 | <p class="quoted"> |
125 | If we compare stoic with Christian ejaculations we see much more |
126 | than a difference of doctrine; rather is it a difference of |
127 | emotional mood that parts them. When Marcus Aurelius reflects on |
128 | the eternal reason that has ordered things, there is a frosty |
129 | chill about his words which you rarely find in a Jewish, and |
130 | never in a Christian piece of religious writing. The universe is |
131 | "accepted" by all these writers; but how devoid of passion or |
132 | exultation the spirit of the Roman Emperor is! Compare his fine |
133 | sentence: "If gods care not for me or my children, here is a |
134 | reason for it," with Job's cry: "Though he slay me, yet will I |
135 | trust in him!" and you immediately see the difference I mean. |
136 | The anima mundi, to whose disposal of his own personal destiny |
137 | the Stoic consents, is there to be respected and submitted to, |
138 | but the Christian God is there to be loved; and the difference of |
139 | emotional atmosphere is like that between an arctic climate and |
140 | the tropics, though the outcome in the way of accepting actual |
141 | conditions uncomplainingly may seem in abstract terms to be much |
142 | the same.</p> |
143 | |
144 | </blockquote> |
145 | |
146 | |
147 | <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a> |
148 | Lecture III: &quot;The Reality of the Unseen&quot;</h3> |
149 | |
150 | <p class="first">The third lecture consists of a brief overview of various |
151 | interpretations of the structure of the unseen world. An argument for |
152 | a dualistic universe is then given using a few passages on spiritual |
153 | encounters as supposed proof. James criticizes strict rationalism as |
154 | well.</p> |
155 | |
156 | <blockquote> |
157 | <p class="quoted"> |
158 | Nevertheless, if we look on man's whole mental life as it exists, on |
159 | the life of men that lies in them apart from their learning and |
160 | science, and that they inwardly and privately follow, we have to |
161 | confess that the part of it of which rationalism can give an account |
162 | is relatively superficial. It is the part that has the prestige |
163 | undoubtedly, for it has the loquacity, it can challenge you for |
164 | proofs, and chop logic, and put you down with words. But it will fail |
165 | to convince or convert you all the same, if your dumb intuitions are |
166 | opposed to its conclusions. If you have intuitions at all, they come |
167 | from a deeper level of your nature than the loquacious level which |
168 | rationalism inhabits. Your whole subconscious life, your impulses, |
169 | your faiths, your needs, your divinations, have prepared the premises, |
170 | of which your consciousness now feels the weight of the result; and |
171 | something in you absolutely <em>knows</em> that that result must be truer than |
172 | any logic-chopping rationalistic talk, however clever, that may |
173 | contradict it. This inferiority of the rationalistic level in |
174 | founding belief is just as manifest when rationalism argues for |
175 | religion as when it argues against it. That vast literature of proofs |
176 | of God's existence drawn from the order of nature, which a century ago |
177 | seemed so overwhelmingly convincing, to-day does little more than |
178 | gather dust in libraries, for the simple reason that our generation |
179 | has ceased to believe in the kind of God it argued for. Whatever sort |
180 | of a being God may be, we <em>know</em> to-day that he is nevermore that mere |
181 | external inventor of "contrivances" intended to make manifest his |
182 | "glory" in which our great-grandfathers took such satisfaction, though |
183 | just how we know this we cannot possibly make clear by words either to |
184 | others or to ourselves. I defy any of you here fully to account for |
185 | your persuasion that if a God exist he must be a more cosmic and |
186 | tragic personage than that Being.</p> |
187 | |
188 | </blockquote> |
189 | |
190 | |
191 | <h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a> |
192 | Lectures IV and V: &quot;The Religion of Healthy Mindedness&quot;</h3> |
193 | |
194 | <p class="first">Lecture IV is an interesting read and surveys a few positive minded |
195 | philosophies, but Lecture V focuses entirely on the <em>mind-cure</em> |
196 | movement. William James then gives a terrible argument for the |
197 | validity of <em>mind-cure</em>, and compares it to science while neglecting the |
198 | complete lack of objectivity in the methods of test the effects of |
199 | <em>mind-cure</em>.</p> |
200 | |
201 | <blockquote> |
202 | <p class="quoted"> |
203 | It is a deliberately optimistic scheme of life, with both a |
204 | speculative and a practical side. In its gradual development during |
205 | the last quarter of a century, it has taken up into itself a number |
206 | of contributory elements, and it must now be reckoned with as a |
207 | genuine religious power. It has reached the stage, for example, when |
208 | the demand for its literature is great enough for insincere stuff, |
209 | mechanically produced for the market, to be to a certain extent |
210 | supplied by publishers—a phenomenon never observed, I imagine, until |
211 | a religion has got well past its earliest insecure beginnings.</p> |
212 | <p class="quoted">...</p> |
213 | <p class="quoted">The plain fact remains that the spread of the movement has been |
214 | due to practical fruits, and the extremely practical turn of |
215 | character of the American people has never been better shown than |
216 | by the fact that this, their only decidedly original contribution |
217 | to the systematic philosophy of life, should be so intimately |
218 | knit up with concrete therapeutics. To the importance of |
219 | mind-cure the medical and clerical professions in the United |
220 | States are beginning, though with much recalcitrancy and |
221 | protesting, to open their eyes. It is evidently bound to develop |
222 | still farther, both speculatively and practically, and its latest |
223 | writers are far and away the ablest of the group. It matters |
224 | nothing that, just as there are hosts of persons who cannot pray, |
225 | so there are greater hosts who cannot by any possibility be |
226 | influenced by the mind-curers' ideas. For our immediate purpose, |
227 | the important point is that so large a number should exist who |
228 | <em>can</em> be so influenced. They form a psychic type to be studied |
229 | with respect.</p> |
230 | |
231 | </blockquote> |
232 | |
233 | <p>The lectures are ended with an argument for the validity of <em>mind-cure</em> |
234 | that compares it directly to science with a clear anti-science bias.</p> |
235 | |
236 | <blockquote> |
237 | <p class="quoted"> |
238 | These are exceedingly trivial instances [<em>the first-hand accounts of |
239 | mind-cure working given in the lecture</em>], but in them, if we |
240 | have anything at all, we have the method of experiment and |
241 | verification. For the point I am driving at now, it makes no |
242 | difference whether you consider the patients to be deluded |
243 | victims of their imagination or not. That they seemed to |
244 | <em>themselves</em> to have been cured by the experiments tried was enough |
245 | to make them converts to the system. And although it is evident |
246 | that one must be of a certain mental mould to get such results |
247 | (for not every one can get thus cured to his own satisfaction any |
248 | more than every one can be cured by the first regular |
249 | practitioner whom he calls in), yet it would surely be pedantic |
250 | and over-scrupulous for those who <em>can</em> get their savage and |
251 | primitive philosophy of mental healing verified in such |
252 | experimental ways as this, to give them up at word of command for |
253 | more scientific therapeutics.</p> |
254 | <p class="quoted">What are we to think of all this? Has science made too wide a |
255 | claim?</p> |
256 | <p class="quoted">I believe that the claims of the sectarian scientist are, to say |
257 | the least, premature. The experiences which we have been |
258 | studying during this hour (and a great many other kinds of |
259 | religious experiences are like them) plainly show the universe to |
260 | be a more many-sided affair than any sect, even the scientific |
261 | sect, allows for. What, in the end, are all our verifications |
262 | but experiences that agree with more or less isolated systems of |
263 | ideas (conceptual systems) that our minds have framed? But why |
264 | in the name of common sense need we assume that only one such |
265 | system of ideas can be true? The obvious outcome of our total |
266 | experience is that the world can be handled according to many |
267 | systems of ideas, and is so handled by different men, and will |
268 | each time give some characteristic kind of profit, for which he |
269 | cares, to the handler, while at the same time some other kind of |
270 | profit has to be omitted or postponed. Science gives to all of |
271 | us telegraphy, electric lighting, and diagnosis, and succeeds in |
272 | preventing and curing a certain amount of disease. Religion in |
273 | the shape of mind-cure gives to some of us serenity, moral poise, |
274 | and happiness, and prevents certain forms of disease as well as |
275 | science does, or even better in a certain class of persons. |
276 | Evidently, then, the science and the religion are both of them |
277 | genuine keys for unlocking the world's treasure-house to him who |
278 | can use either of them practically. Just as evidently neither is |
279 | exhaustive or exclusive of the other's simultaneous use. And |
280 | why, after all, may not the world be so complex as to consist of |
281 | many interpenetrating spheres of reality, which we can thus |
282 | approach in alternation by using different conceptions and |
283 | assuming different attitudes, just as mathematicians handle the |
284 | same numerical and spatial facts by geometry, by analytical |
285 | geometry, by algebra, by the calculus, or by quaternions, and |
286 | each time come out right? On this view religion and science, |
287 | each verified in its own way from hour to hour and from life to |
288 | life, would be co-eternal. Primitive thought, with its belief in |
289 | individualized personal forces, seems at any rate as far as ever |
290 | from being driven by science from the field to-day. Numbers of |
291 | educated people still find it the directest experimental channel |
292 | by which to carry on their intercourse with reality</p> |
293 | |
294 | </blockquote> |
295 | |
296 | <p>He draws a very strong conclusion that would be difficult to draw from |
297 | even quality evidence and objective trials; this drawn from subjective |
298 | personal accounts with no controlled testing method. A representative |
299 | example follows of his evidence follows.</p> |
300 | |
301 | <blockquote> |
302 | <p class="quoted"> |
303 | "One of my first experiences in applying my teaching was two |
304 | months after I first saw the healer. I fell, spraining my right |
305 | ankle, which I had done once four years before, having then had |
306 | to use a crutch and elastic anklet for some months, and carefully |
307 | guarding it ever since. As soon as I was on my feet I made the |
308 | positive suggestion (and felt it through all my being): 'There |
309 | is nothing but God, and all life comes from him perfectly. I |
310 | cannot be sprained or hurt, I will let him take care of it.' |
311 | Well, I never had a sensation in it, and I walked two miles that |
312 | day."</p> |
313 | |
314 | </blockquote> |
315 | |
316 | <p>Ignoring any other problems in William James's argument, it is clear |
317 | that his conclusion is far too heavy to rest upon the evidence he has |
318 | chosen to use.</p> |
319 | |
320 | |
321 | <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a> |
322 | Lectures VI and VII: &quot;The Sick Soul&quot;</h3> |
323 | |
324 | <p class="first">The lectures on the Sick Soul are filled with rather weak quotations |
325 | (excepting a few short passages of Tolstoy). The reader is reminded |
326 | over and over how terrible and painful it is to be working through |
327 | these horrid expressions of melancholy which aren't really so |
328 | terrible.</p> |
329 | |
330 | <p>James's view is that a state of melancholy is merely a transitional |
331 | stage that comes before a second mental birth occurs, and allows for a |
332 | deep religious belief to set in. Most of the remainder of the lecture |
333 | series is dedicated to analyzing the mind of the Second Born which he |
334 | sees are far deeper spiritually than the simple positive Once Born |
335 | type (depsite his previous praise of <em>mind-cure</em>).</p> |
336 | |
337 | |
338 | <h3><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a> |
339 | Lecture VIII: &quot;The Divided Self, and the Process of Its Unificiation&quot;</h3> |
340 | |
341 | <p class="first">Here the lectures return to things mildly interesting with an overview |
342 | of heterogenous personalities and a few passages on unificiation of |
343 | conflicting desires. James splits unificiations into gradual and |
344 | sudden ones giving examples of each. This lecture is the bridge |
345 | between lectures V through VII and the material on conversion.</p> |
346 | |
347 | |
348 | <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a> |
349 | Lectures IX and X: &quot;Conversion&quot;</h3> |
350 | |
351 | |
352 | <ul> |
353 | <li>conversion allows for unification of divided self</li> |
354 | <li>Definition of Association</li> |
355 | <li>Conversion is sudden change of <em>the habitual center of personal energy</em></li> |
356 | <li>Examples of conversion |
357 | |
358 | <ul> |
359 | <li>Common people, stereotypical conversion types</li> |
360 | <li>Seemingly of suspect quality</li> |
361 | </ul></li> |
362 | <li>Note of the trouble of not being able to be religious |
363 | |
364 | <ul> |
365 | <li>Painted in a negative light!</li> |
366 | </ul></li> |
367 | |
368 | <li>Focus on instantaneous conversion |
369 | |
370 | <ul> |
371 | <li>Give prototypical example</li> |
372 | </ul></li> |
373 | </ul> |
374 | |
375 | <blockquote> |
376 | <p class="quoted"> |
377 | "Coming out of the cafe I met the carriage of Monsieur B. [the |
378 | proselyting friend]. He stopped and invited me in for a drive, |
379 | but first asked me to wait for a few minutes whilst he attended |
380 | to some duty at the church of San Andrea delle Fratte. Instead |
381 | of waiting in the carriage, I entered the church myself to look |
382 | at it. The church of San Andrea was poor, small, and empty; I |
383 | believe that I found myself there almost alone. No work of art |
384 | attracted my attention; and I passed my eyes mechanically over |
385 | its interior without being arrested by any particular thought. I |
386 | can only remember an entirely black dog which went trotting and |
387 | turning before me as I mused. In an instant the dog had |
388 | disappeared, the whole church had vanished, I no longer saw |
389 | anything, . . . or more truly I saw, O my God, one thing alone. |
390 | "Heavens, how can I speak of it? Oh no! human words cannot |
391 | attain to expressing the inexpressible. Any description, however |
392 | sublime it might be, could be but a profanation of the |
393 | unspeakable truth.</p> |
394 | <p class="quoted">"I was there prostrate on the ground, bathed in my tears, with my |
395 | heart beside itself, when M. B. called me back to life. I could |
396 | not reply to the questions which followed from him one upon the |
397 | other. But finally I took the medal which I had on my breast, |
398 | and with all the effusion of my soul I kissed the image of the |
399 | Virgin, radiant with grace, which it bore. Oh, indeed, it was |
400 | She! It was indeed She! [What he had seen had been a vision of |
401 | the Virgin.]</p> |
402 | <p class="quoted">"I did not know where I was: I did not know whether I was |
403 | Alphonse or another. I only felt myself changed and believed |
404 | myself another me; I looked for myself in myself and did not find |
405 | myself. In the bottom of my soul I felt an explosion of the most |
406 | ardent joy; I could not speak; I had no wish to reveal what had |
407 | happened. But I felt something solemn and sacred within me which |
408 | made me ask for a priest. I was led to one; and there alone, |
409 | after he had given me the positive order, I spoke as best I |
410 | could, kneeling, and with my heart still trembling. I could give |
411 | no account to myself of the truth of which I had acquired a |
412 | knowledge and a faith. All that I can say is that in an instant |
413 | the bandage had fallen from my eyes, and not one bandage only, |
414 | but the whole manifold of bandages in which I had been brought |
415 | up. One after another they rapidly disappeared, even as the mud |
416 | and ice disappear under the rays of the burning sun."</p> |
417 | |
418 | </blockquote> |
419 | |
420 | <ul> |
421 | <li>Notes recent protestant phenomemon of instantaneous conversion</li> |
422 | <li>Gives psychological explanation for instant conversion |
423 | |
424 | <ul> |
425 | <li>Field of conciousness</li> |
426 | <li>Subconcious on margin |
427 | |
428 | <ul> |
429 | <li>Subconcious life can affect concious existance</li> |
430 | <li>Note: cites Freud & friends as reliable</li> |
431 | </ul></li> |
432 | </ul></li> |
433 | </ul> |
434 | |
435 | <blockquote> |
436 | <p class="quoted"> |
437 | In the wonderful explorations by Binet, Janet, Breuer, Freud, |
438 | Mason, Prince, and others, of the subliminal consciousness of |
439 | patients with hysteria, we have revealed to us whole systems of |
440 | underground life, in the shape of memories of a painful sort |
441 | which lead a parasitic existence, buried outside of the primary |
442 | fields of consciousness, and making irruptions thereinto with |
443 | hallucinations, pains, convulsions, paralyses of feeling and of |
444 | motion, and the whole procession of symptoms of hysteric disease |
445 | of body and of mind. Alter or abolish by suggestion these |
446 | subconscious memories, and the patient immediately gets well. |
447 | His symptoms were automatisms, in Mr. Myers's sense of the word. |
448 | These clinical records sound like fairy-tales when one first |
449 | reads them, yet it is impossible to doubt their accuracy; and, |
450 | the path having been once opened by these first observers, |
451 | similar observations have been made elsewhere. They throw, as I |
452 | said, a wholly new light upon our natural constitution.</p> |
453 | |
454 | </blockquote> |
455 | |
456 | <ul> |
457 | <li>Conversion is a transfer of energies from the subconcious |
458 | |
459 | <ul> |
460 | <li>Changes center of focus in the field of conciousness |
461 | |
462 | <ul> |
463 | <li>Disproves religious nature of instant conversion argument</li> |
464 | </ul></li> |
465 | </ul></li> |
466 | <li>Notes that there are no discernable differences between instant |
467 | converts and slow converts</li> |
468 | </ul> |
469 | |
470 | <blockquote> |
471 | <p class="quoted"> |
472 | The believers in the non-natural character of sudden conversion |
473 | have had practically to admit that there is no unmistakable |
474 | class-mark distinctive of all true converts. The super-normal |
475 | incidents, such as voices and visions and overpowering |
476 | impressions of the meaning of suddenly presented scripture texts, |
477 | the melting emotions and tumultuous affections connected with the |
478 | crisis of change, may all come by way of nature, or worse still, |
479 | be counterfeited by Satan. The real witness of the spirit to the |
480 | second birth is to be found only in the disposition of the |
481 | genuine child of God, the permanently patient heart, the love of |
482 | self eradicated. And this, it has to be admitted, is also found |
483 | in those who pass no crisis, and may even be found outside of |
484 | Christianity altogether.</p> |
485 | |
486 | </blockquote> |
487 | |
488 | <ul> |
489 | <li>Instant conversion is a natural result of exposing a person with a |
490 | rich subconcious existence to religion and is merely one type of |
491 | conversion</li> |
492 | </ul> |
493 | |
494 | <blockquote> |
495 | <p class="quoted"> |
496 | Sharp distinctions are difficult in these regions, and Professor Coe's |
497 | numbers are small. But his methods were careful, and the results |
498 | tally with what one might expect; and they seem, on the whole, to |
499 | justify his practical conclusion, which is that if you should expose |
500 | to a converting influence a subject in whom three factors unite: |
501 | first, pronounced emotional sensibility; second, tendency to |
502 | automatisms; and third, suggestibility of the passive type; you might |
503 | then safely predict the result: there would be a sudden conversion, a |
504 | transformation of the striking kind.</p> |
505 | |
506 | </blockquote> |
507 | |
508 | <ul> |
509 | <li>Finishes with discussion of pre-conversion emotion |
510 | |
511 | <ul> |
512 | <li>Usually melancholy</li> |
513 | <li>Disguist at sin</li> |
514 | </ul></li> |
515 | <li>Post Conversion feeling |
516 | |
517 | <ul> |
518 | <li>New self</li> |
519 | <li>Clean</li> |
520 | </ul></li> |
521 | </ul> |
522 | |
523 | |
524 | <h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a> |
525 | Lectures XI - XIII: Saintliness</h3> |
526 | |
527 | <ul> |
528 | <li>Descriptive assement of fruits of conversion |
529 | |
530 | <ul> |
531 | <li>general discussion of what causes differing character |
532 | |
533 | <ul> |
534 | <li>Impulse vs Inhibition |
535 | |
536 | <ul> |
537 | <li>Strong emotions shut down inhibition</li> |
538 | </ul></li> |
539 | </ul></li> |
540 | <li>Application of general principles to the results of conversion |
541 | |
542 | <ul> |
543 | <li>Top over point -> God works through Subliminal</li> |
544 | <li>Ignore how the Subliminal works |
545 | |
546 | <ul> |
547 | <li>[It seems that this is done to avoid concluding that there is |
548 | no god]</li> |
549 | <li>[Minimization of importance of natural processes in |
550 | post-convesion]</li> |
551 | </ul></li> |
552 | <li>Saintliness |
553 | |
554 | <ul> |
555 | <li>Four universal inner conditions</li> |
556 | <li>Four results of the inner conditions</li> |
557 | <li>EXAMPLES |
558 | |
559 | <ul> |
560 | <li>Prescence of a higher & friendly power</li> |
561 | <li>Charity (agape) love |
562 | |
563 | <ul> |
564 | <li>Charity not unique to theistic religions, therefore it |
565 | should be seen as coordinate rather than subordinate to |
566 | the topic of the lecture series (page 296)</li> |
567 | </ul></li> |
568 | <li>Inward Tranquillity |
569 | |
570 | <ul> |
571 | <li>Sombre constitution results in resignation and submission</li> |
572 | <li>Cheerful constitution results in joyous consent</li> |
573 | </ul></li> |
574 | <li>Purity |
575 | |
576 | <ul> |
577 | <li>Internal discord leads to suffering</li> |
578 | </ul></li> |
579 | <li>Ascetecism |
580 | |
581 | <ul> |
582 | <li>result of extreme pursuit of purity</li> |
583 | <li>List of sources of ascetic behavior</li> |
584 | <li>Ascetecism in monks |
585 | |
586 | <ul> |
587 | <li>Obedience |
588 | |
589 | <ul> |
590 | <li>Low reasons |
591 | |
592 | <ul> |
593 | <li>Obedience expedient in ecclesiastical organizations</li> |
594 | <li>External counsel at certain times is better than |
595 | internal</li> |
596 | </ul></li> |
597 | <li>High Reason |
598 | |
599 | <ul> |
600 | <li>Inner softening</li> |
601 | </ul></li> |
602 | <li>Catholic view as sacrifice |
603 | |
604 | <ul> |
605 | <li>[quote p.274 "sacrifice which man offers to God..."]</li> |
606 | <li>passages by member of the order of St Ignatius</li> |
607 | </ul></li> |
608 | </ul></li> |
609 | <li>Poverty |
610 | |
611 | <ul> |
612 | <li>Things steal freedom, therefore a life of doing/being |
613 | is superior</li> |
614 | </ul></li> |
615 | </ul></li> |
616 | </ul></li> |
617 | </ul></li> |
618 | </ul></li> |
619 | </ul></li> |
620 | </ul></li> |
621 | </ul> |
622 | |
623 | |
624 | <h3><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a> |
625 | Lectures XIV-XV: The Value of Saintliness</h3> |
626 | |
627 | <ul> |
628 | <li>Critique of Saintliness |
629 | |
630 | <ul> |
631 | <li>Using empirical methods (unlike Catholics) |
632 | |
633 | <ul> |
634 | <li>Humans cannot differentiate between natural and supernatural |
635 | effects</li> |
636 | </ul></li> |
637 | <li>(Defense of Methodology) |
638 | |
639 | <ul> |
640 | <li>Current religious views result of empiricism |
641 | |
642 | <ul> |
643 | <li>Rejection of former gods over time as they cease to serve our |
644 | needs</li> |
645 | </ul></li> |
646 | <li>Must be skeptical (not unreasonably so however) of current |
647 | beliefs |
648 | |
649 | <ul> |
650 | <li>Humans are fallible; admitting this brings us closer to truth |
651 | by enabling discussion of flaws in beliefs</li> |
652 | <li>Quite probably that no one religion is entirely correct</li> |
653 | </ul></li> |
654 | </ul></li> |
655 | </ul></li> |
656 | <li>Concerned with personal religious experiences, and not with |
657 | instutitional religion [reiteration from second lecture] |
658 | |
659 | <ul> |
660 | <li>Ideas of a prophet -> heterodoxy -> heresy (if accepted by |
661 | others) -> orthodxy (if survives persection) |
662 | |
663 | <ul> |
664 | <li>Cycle then begins anew</li> |
665 | </ul></li> |
666 | <li>Religion itself cannot be blamed for evils committed</li> |
667 | </ul></li> |
668 | <li>Extreme Saintliness due to excess |
669 | |
670 | <ul> |
671 | <li>In men, excess is due to lack of balance, or excessively strong |
672 | personality elements mixed with weak ones |
673 | |
674 | <ul> |
675 | <li>If all faculities are strong and cooperate one has a strong |
676 | character rather than one plagued by excess</li> |
677 | <li>Extremely saintly people have strong spiritual faculities, but |
678 | deficient ability to perceive extravagane |
679 | |
680 | <ul> |
681 | <li>Leads to excessie self-denial</li> |
682 | <li>Still useful as archetypes</li> |
683 | </ul></li> |
684 | </ul></li> |
685 | </ul></li> |
686 | <li>Four Virtues & Unbalanced Forms |
687 | |
688 | <ul> |
689 | <li>Devoutness |
690 | |
691 | <ul> |
692 | <li>Fanatacism |
693 | |
694 | <ul> |
695 | <li>Strong character mixed with narrow mind</li> |
696 | </ul></li> |
697 | <li>Theopathy (cointed by WJ to describe excess devoutness) |
698 | |
699 | <ul> |
700 | <li>Excess of devotion with feeble mind</li> |
701 | <li>Person becomes absorbed in inward love of/from God</li> |
702 | </ul></li> |
703 | </ul></li> |
704 | <li>Purity |
705 | |
706 | <ul> |
707 | <li>Narrow mindedness results on love of God replacing all other |
708 | love</li> |
709 | <li>In aggressive types stamps external disorder from existence</li> |
710 | <li>In passive types disorder is eliminated internall by secluding |
711 | self |
712 | |
713 | <ul> |
714 | <li>Example: Lous of Gonzaga</li> |
715 | <li>Such a life was seen as good in the 16th century, but in the |
716 | early 20th was seen as repulsive due to secular changes (more |
717 | value being placed on helping society than merely saving |
718 | oneself)</li> |
719 | </ul></li> |
720 | </ul></li> |
721 | <li>Charity / Tenderness |
722 | |
723 | <ul> |
724 | <li>Saintly 'Resist No Evil' versus Worldy Pragmatic Standpoint |
725 | |
726 | <ul> |
727 | <li>No simple answer</li> |
728 | </ul></li> |
729 | <li>Perfect conduct relation between actor, objects acted upon, and |
730 | recipients of the action |
731 | |
732 | <ul> |
733 | <li>Best intentions fail when executed incorrectly or addressed |
734 | to the wrong recipient</li> |
735 | <li>Thus cannot judge charity by actor alone</li> |
736 | </ul></li> |
737 | <li>Saintly charity works in a perfect world |
738 | |
739 | <ul> |
740 | <li>Excessive in the World That Is</li> |
741 | <li>Evil takes advantage of charity</li> |
742 | <li>However, the world would be far worse without charitable |
743 | people |
744 | |
745 | <ul> |
746 | <li>Treating others charitably inspires others to become |
747 | better</li> |
748 | <li>Exposure to an excessively charitable person softens a |
749 | person</li> |
750 | <li>Without this type all would lie in spiritual stagnation</li> |
751 | </ul></li> |
752 | <li>Therefore even excessive charity has value |
753 | |
754 | <ul> |
755 | <li>Force destroys enemies</li> |
756 | <li>Prudence at best resists enemies</li> |
757 | <li>Non-resistance / Charity turns enemies into friends</li> |
758 | </ul></li> |
759 | <li>Though excessive, the saint makes the world a better place |
760 | |
761 | <ul> |
762 | <li>Compare to Utopianists and Anarchists</li> |
763 | </ul></li> |
764 | </ul></li> |
765 | </ul></li> |
766 | <li>Ascetecism |
767 | |
768 | <ul> |
769 | <li>Virtue most prone to excess</li> |
770 | <li>It seems at first those wo are excessively ascetic are still |
771 | inwardly attached to the world |
772 | |
773 | <ul> |
774 | <li>If one were truly liberated he would not need excessive |
775 | moritification</li> |
776 | </ul></li> |
777 | <li>Different view: Ascetic sees wrongs in the world, and rather |
778 | than ignore them he conquers them internally |
779 | |
780 | <ul> |
781 | <li>One who does not fear Death seems strong</li> |
782 | </ul></li> |
783 | <li>Ascetecism is a profounder way of handling excistence than |
784 | simple optimistic naturalism |
785 | |
786 | <ul> |
787 | <li>In the modern time, people should throw away useless |
788 | asceticism and embrace useful aspects</li> |
789 | <li>Attributes of early 20th century life and weakened churching |
790 | breed weaker character |
791 | |
792 | <ul> |
793 | <li>Militarism used as a subtitute for religious ascetecism |
794 | |
795 | <ul> |
796 | <li>Poor subtitute |
797 | |
798 | <ul> |
799 | <li>Speaks to the base and brutish aspects of human nature</li> |
800 | </ul></li> |
801 | </ul></li> |
802 | <li>Ascetic poverty much superior to militarism/war |
803 | |
804 | <ul> |
805 | <li>WJ believes it <strong>must</strong> be embraced to fight evils of the |
806 | time [quote page 319-320]</li> |
807 | <li>Desire to gain wealth breeds cowardice and corruption |
808 | |
809 | <ul> |
810 | <li>Wealthy man enslaved to riches</li> |
811 | <li>Poor man lacks chains |
812 | - Single attributes of saintliness are found in the non-religious |
813 | - Combination of all forms is religious in nature |
814 | - Flows from sense of divine order |
815 | - Saintly person palces happiness internally rather than deriving |
816 | from comfort |
817 | - Saintly attributes mixed with narrow mind results in terrible |
818 | excessive forms |
819 | - We should not, however, place blame for narrow mindedness |
820 | entirely on the individual |
821 | - Essentials vs Accidents of saintliness |
822 | - Dislike of Saintly character |
823 | - Man traditionally worships strong leaders |
824 | - Saints are weak and passive |
825 | - Male vs Female nature [think Yin vs Yang] |
826 | - Many suppose there is one ideal type of character |
827 | - Empiricism rejects this as foolish |
828 | - On the one hande the saintly character is better than the |
829 | strongman becaue he is adapted to life in a perfect society |
830 | - On the other in the real world he would be ill adapted |
831 | - Mixture of the two characters useful [think Nietzsche's |
832 | uebermensch or Taoist] |
833 | - Saintly character has real value</li> |
834 | </ul></li> |
835 | </ul></li> |
836 | </ul></li> |
837 | </ul></li> |
838 | </ul></li> |
839 | </ul></li> |
840 | </ul> |
841 | |
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7404d4e1 |
870 | <p class="cke-footer">The body bags and little rags of children torn in two, |
871 | And the jellied brains of those who remain to put the finger right on you |
872 | As the madmen play on words and make us all dance to their song |
873 | To the tune of starving millions to make a better kind of gun. |
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875 | <p class="cke-timestamp">Last Modified: |
876 | March 13, 2008</p> |
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