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| 13 | <h1>William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience</h1> |
| 14 | <div class="contents"> |
| 15 | <dl> |
| 16 | <dt> |
| 17 | <a href="#sec1">William James - Varieties of Religious Experience (<code>In progress</code>)</a> |
| 18 | </dt> |
| 19 | <dd> |
| 20 | <dl> |
| 21 | <dt> |
| 22 | <a href="#sec2">Lectures I and II</a> |
| 23 | </dt> |
| 24 | <dt> |
| 25 | <a href="#sec3">Lecture III: &quot;The Reality of the Unseen&quot;</a> |
| 26 | </dt> |
| 27 | <dt> |
| 28 | <a href="#sec4">Lectures IV and V: &quot;The Religion of Healthy Mindedness&quot;</a> |
| 29 | </dt> |
| 30 | <dt> |
| 31 | <a href="#sec5">Lectures VI and VII: &quot;The Sick Soul&quot;</a> |
| 32 | </dt> |
| 33 | <dt> |
| 34 | <a href="#sec6">Lecture VIII: &quot;The Divided Self, and the Process of Its Unificiation&quot;</a> |
| 35 | </dt> |
| 36 | <dt> |
| 37 | <a href="#sec7">Lectures IX and X: &quot;Conversion&quot;</a> |
| 38 | </dt> |
| 39 | <dt> |
| 40 | <a href="#sec8">Lectures XI - XIII: Saintliness</a> |
| 41 | </dt> |
| 42 | <dt> |
| 43 | <a href="#sec9">Lectures XIV-XV: The Value of Saintliness</a> |
| 44 | </dt> |
| 45 | </dl> |
| 46 | </dd> |
| 47 | </dl> |
| 48 | </div> |
| 49 | |
| 50 | |
| 51 | <!-- Page published by Emacs Muse begins here --><h2><a name="sec1" id="sec1"></a> |
| 52 | William James - <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/621">Varieties of Religious Experience</a> (<code>In progress</code>)</h2> |
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| 70 | |
| 71 | <p>The <em>Varieties of Religious Experience</em> is a set of twenty lectures on |
| 72 | religious experience from a psychological perspective. The quality of |
| 73 | the method used is a bit suspect, but my understanding is that it was |
| 74 | one of the first pyschological surveys of religion, and so could |
| 75 | perhaps be forgiven of a few flaws.</p> |
| 76 | |
| 77 | <p>I found parts to be boring, and others to have flawed reasoning, but |
| 78 | with a few lectures that were interesting. At the very least the |
| 79 | lectures give a reasonable glimpse into the religous fashion of the |
| 80 | late 1800s. There is a small bit of social commentary thrown in that |
| 81 | is cited by John Gatto in his <em>Underground History of American |
| 82 | Education</em>, which is why I chose to read this.</p> |
| 83 | |
| 84 | <h3><a name="sec2" id="sec2"></a> |
| 85 | Lectures I and II</h3> |
| 86 | |
| 87 | <p class="first">The first two lectures lay the groundwork for the lecture series. The |
| 88 | first covers a few views on what religious experience is, and gives |
| 89 | refutations (although not terribly good ones now, perhaps they were |
| 90 | seen as fine in the early 1900s) to a few deterministic theories. The |
| 91 | second lecture defines the scope of the topic to be covered, and |
| 92 | limits the definitions of religion and spirituality.</p> |
| 93 | |
| 94 | |
| 95 | <blockquote> |
| 96 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 97 | Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall |
| 98 | mean for us <em>the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in |
| 99 | their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in |
| 100 | relation to whatever they may consider the divine</em>. Since the |
| 101 | relation may be either moral, physical, or ritual, it is evident that |
| 102 | out of religion in the sense in which we take it, theologies, |
| 103 | philosophies, and ecclesiastical organizations may secondarily grow. |
| 104 | In these lectures, however, as I have already said, the immediate |
| 105 | personal experiences will amply fill our time, and we shall hardly |
| 106 | consider theology or ecclesiasticism at all.</p> |
| 107 | |
| 108 | </blockquote> |
| 109 | |
| 110 | <p>In the second lecture James's first extremely arbitrary distinction is |
| 111 | made; he compares the stoicism espoused by Marcus Aurelius to |
| 112 | Christian writings and draws what I think is a nonexistent difference |
| 113 | between the two. It is my opinion that the Stoic is just as religious |
| 114 | by James's definition as the Christian; the stoic merely sees the |
| 115 | Universe as his god and makes conformance to the natural order his |
| 116 | ideal. The Stoic actively embraces the natural order just as the |
| 117 | Christian actively loves his god; the difference is merely in whether |
| 118 | God is seen as a definite individual or not.</p> |
| 119 | |
| 120 | <blockquote> |
| 121 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 122 | If we compare stoic with Christian ejaculations we see much more |
| 123 | than a difference of doctrine; rather is it a difference of |
| 124 | emotional mood that parts them. When Marcus Aurelius reflects on |
| 125 | the eternal reason that has ordered things, there is a frosty |
| 126 | chill about his words which you rarely find in a Jewish, and |
| 127 | never in a Christian piece of religious writing. The universe is |
| 128 | "accepted" by all these writers; but how devoid of passion or |
| 129 | exultation the spirit of the Roman Emperor is! Compare his fine |
| 130 | sentence: "If gods care not for me or my children, here is a |
| 131 | reason for it," with Job's cry: "Though he slay me, yet will I |
| 132 | trust in him!" and you immediately see the difference I mean. |
| 133 | The anima mundi, to whose disposal of his own personal destiny |
| 134 | the Stoic consents, is there to be respected and submitted to, |
| 135 | but the Christian God is there to be loved; and the difference of |
| 136 | emotional atmosphere is like that between an arctic climate and |
| 137 | the tropics, though the outcome in the way of accepting actual |
| 138 | conditions uncomplainingly may seem in abstract terms to be much |
| 139 | the same.</p> |
| 140 | |
| 141 | </blockquote> |
| 142 | |
| 143 | |
| 144 | <h3><a name="sec3" id="sec3"></a> |
| 145 | Lecture III: &quot;The Reality of the Unseen&quot;</h3> |
| 146 | |
| 147 | <p class="first">The third lecture consists of a brief overview of various |
| 148 | interpretations of the structure of the unseen world. An argument for |
| 149 | a dualistic universe is then given using a few passages on spiritual |
| 150 | encounters as supposed proof. James criticizes strict rationalism as |
| 151 | well.</p> |
| 152 | |
| 153 | <blockquote> |
| 154 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 155 | Nevertheless, if we look on man's whole mental life as it exists, on |
| 156 | the life of men that lies in them apart from their learning and |
| 157 | science, and that they inwardly and privately follow, we have to |
| 158 | confess that the part of it of which rationalism can give an account |
| 159 | is relatively superficial. It is the part that has the prestige |
| 160 | undoubtedly, for it has the loquacity, it can challenge you for |
| 161 | proofs, and chop logic, and put you down with words. But it will fail |
| 162 | to convince or convert you all the same, if your dumb intuitions are |
| 163 | opposed to its conclusions. If you have intuitions at all, they come |
| 164 | from a deeper level of your nature than the loquacious level which |
| 165 | rationalism inhabits. Your whole subconscious life, your impulses, |
| 166 | your faiths, your needs, your divinations, have prepared the premises, |
| 167 | of which your consciousness now feels the weight of the result; and |
| 168 | something in you absolutely <em>knows</em> that that result must be truer than |
| 169 | any logic-chopping rationalistic talk, however clever, that may |
| 170 | contradict it. This inferiority of the rationalistic level in |
| 171 | founding belief is just as manifest when rationalism argues for |
| 172 | religion as when it argues against it. That vast literature of proofs |
| 173 | of God's existence drawn from the order of nature, which a century ago |
| 174 | seemed so overwhelmingly convincing, to-day does little more than |
| 175 | gather dust in libraries, for the simple reason that our generation |
| 176 | has ceased to believe in the kind of God it argued for. Whatever sort |
| 177 | of a being God may be, we <em>know</em> to-day that he is nevermore that mere |
| 178 | external inventor of "contrivances" intended to make manifest his |
| 179 | "glory" in which our great-grandfathers took such satisfaction, though |
| 180 | just how we know this we cannot possibly make clear by words either to |
| 181 | others or to ourselves. I defy any of you here fully to account for |
| 182 | your persuasion that if a God exist he must be a more cosmic and |
| 183 | tragic personage than that Being.</p> |
| 184 | |
| 185 | </blockquote> |
| 186 | |
| 187 | |
| 188 | <h3><a name="sec4" id="sec4"></a> |
| 189 | Lectures IV and V: &quot;The Religion of Healthy Mindedness&quot;</h3> |
| 190 | |
| 191 | <p class="first">Lecture IV is an interesting read and surveys a few positive minded |
| 192 | philosophies, but Lecture V focuses entirely on the <em>mind-cure</em> |
| 193 | movement. William James then gives a terrible argument for the |
| 194 | validity of <em>mind-cure</em>, and compares it to science while neglecting the |
| 195 | complete lack of objectivity in the methods of test the effects of |
| 196 | <em>mind-cure</em>.</p> |
| 197 | |
| 198 | <blockquote> |
| 199 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 200 | It is a deliberately optimistic scheme of life, with both a |
| 201 | speculative and a practical side. In its gradual development during |
| 202 | the last quarter of a century, it has taken up into itself a number |
| 203 | of contributory elements, and it must now be reckoned with as a |
| 204 | genuine religious power. It has reached the stage, for example, when |
| 205 | the demand for its literature is great enough for insincere stuff, |
| 206 | mechanically produced for the market, to be to a certain extent |
| 207 | supplied by publishers—a phenomenon never observed, I imagine, until |
| 208 | a religion has got well past its earliest insecure beginnings.</p> |
| 209 | <p class="quoted">...</p> |
| 210 | <p class="quoted">The plain fact remains that the spread of the movement has been |
| 211 | due to practical fruits, and the extremely practical turn of |
| 212 | character of the American people has never been better shown than |
| 213 | by the fact that this, their only decidedly original contribution |
| 214 | to the systematic philosophy of life, should be so intimately |
| 215 | knit up with concrete therapeutics. To the importance of |
| 216 | mind-cure the medical and clerical professions in the United |
| 217 | States are beginning, though with much recalcitrancy and |
| 218 | protesting, to open their eyes. It is evidently bound to develop |
| 219 | still farther, both speculatively and practically, and its latest |
| 220 | writers are far and away the ablest of the group. It matters |
| 221 | nothing that, just as there are hosts of persons who cannot pray, |
| 222 | so there are greater hosts who cannot by any possibility be |
| 223 | influenced by the mind-curers' ideas. For our immediate purpose, |
| 224 | the important point is that so large a number should exist who |
| 225 | <em>can</em> be so influenced. They form a psychic type to be studied |
| 226 | with respect.</p> |
| 227 | |
| 228 | </blockquote> |
| 229 | |
| 230 | <p>The lectures are ended with an argument for the validity of <em>mind-cure</em> |
| 231 | that compares it directly to science with a clear anti-science bias.</p> |
| 232 | |
| 233 | <blockquote> |
| 234 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 235 | These are exceedingly trivial instances [<em>the first-hand accounts of |
| 236 | mind-cure working given in the lecture</em>], but in them, if we |
| 237 | have anything at all, we have the method of experiment and |
| 238 | verification. For the point I am driving at now, it makes no |
| 239 | difference whether you consider the patients to be deluded |
| 240 | victims of their imagination or not. That they seemed to |
| 241 | <em>themselves</em> to have been cured by the experiments tried was enough |
| 242 | to make them converts to the system. And although it is evident |
| 243 | that one must be of a certain mental mould to get such results |
| 244 | (for not every one can get thus cured to his own satisfaction any |
| 245 | more than every one can be cured by the first regular |
| 246 | practitioner whom he calls in), yet it would surely be pedantic |
| 247 | and over-scrupulous for those who <em>can</em> get their savage and |
| 248 | primitive philosophy of mental healing verified in such |
| 249 | experimental ways as this, to give them up at word of command for |
| 250 | more scientific therapeutics.</p> |
| 251 | <p class="quoted">What are we to think of all this? Has science made too wide a |
| 252 | claim?</p> |
| 253 | <p class="quoted">I believe that the claims of the sectarian scientist are, to say |
| 254 | the least, premature. The experiences which we have been |
| 255 | studying during this hour (and a great many other kinds of |
| 256 | religious experiences are like them) plainly show the universe to |
| 257 | be a more many-sided affair than any sect, even the scientific |
| 258 | sect, allows for. What, in the end, are all our verifications |
| 259 | but experiences that agree with more or less isolated systems of |
| 260 | ideas (conceptual systems) that our minds have framed? But why |
| 261 | in the name of common sense need we assume that only one such |
| 262 | system of ideas can be true? The obvious outcome of our total |
| 263 | experience is that the world can be handled according to many |
| 264 | systems of ideas, and is so handled by different men, and will |
| 265 | each time give some characteristic kind of profit, for which he |
| 266 | cares, to the handler, while at the same time some other kind of |
| 267 | profit has to be omitted or postponed. Science gives to all of |
| 268 | us telegraphy, electric lighting, and diagnosis, and succeeds in |
| 269 | preventing and curing a certain amount of disease. Religion in |
| 270 | the shape of mind-cure gives to some of us serenity, moral poise, |
| 271 | and happiness, and prevents certain forms of disease as well as |
| 272 | science does, or even better in a certain class of persons. |
| 273 | Evidently, then, the science and the religion are both of them |
| 274 | genuine keys for unlocking the world's treasure-house to him who |
| 275 | can use either of them practically. Just as evidently neither is |
| 276 | exhaustive or exclusive of the other's simultaneous use. And |
| 277 | why, after all, may not the world be so complex as to consist of |
| 278 | many interpenetrating spheres of reality, which we can thus |
| 279 | approach in alternation by using different conceptions and |
| 280 | assuming different attitudes, just as mathematicians handle the |
| 281 | same numerical and spatial facts by geometry, by analytical |
| 282 | geometry, by algebra, by the calculus, or by quaternions, and |
| 283 | each time come out right? On this view religion and science, |
| 284 | each verified in its own way from hour to hour and from life to |
| 285 | life, would be co-eternal. Primitive thought, with its belief in |
| 286 | individualized personal forces, seems at any rate as far as ever |
| 287 | from being driven by science from the field to-day. Numbers of |
| 288 | educated people still find it the directest experimental channel |
| 289 | by which to carry on their intercourse with reality</p> |
| 290 | |
| 291 | </blockquote> |
| 292 | |
| 293 | <p>He draws a very strong conclusion that would be difficult to draw from |
| 294 | even quality evidence and objective trials; this drawn from subjective |
| 295 | personal accounts with no controlled testing method. A representative |
| 296 | example follows of his evidence follows.</p> |
| 297 | |
| 298 | <blockquote> |
| 299 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 300 | "One of my first experiences in applying my teaching was two |
| 301 | months after I first saw the healer. I fell, spraining my right |
| 302 | ankle, which I had done once four years before, having then had |
| 303 | to use a crutch and elastic anklet for some months, and carefully |
| 304 | guarding it ever since. As soon as I was on my feet I made the |
| 305 | positive suggestion (and felt it through all my being): 'There |
| 306 | is nothing but God, and all life comes from him perfectly. I |
| 307 | cannot be sprained or hurt, I will let him take care of it.' |
| 308 | Well, I never had a sensation in it, and I walked two miles that |
| 309 | day."</p> |
| 310 | |
| 311 | </blockquote> |
| 312 | |
| 313 | <p>Ignoring any other problems in William James's argument, it is clear |
| 314 | that his conclusion is far too heavy to rest upon the evidence he has |
| 315 | chosen to use.</p> |
| 316 | |
| 317 | |
| 318 | <h3><a name="sec5" id="sec5"></a> |
| 319 | Lectures VI and VII: &quot;The Sick Soul&quot;</h3> |
| 320 | |
| 321 | <p class="first">The lectures on the Sick Soul are filled with rather weak quotations |
| 322 | (excepting a few short passages of Tolstoy). The reader is reminded |
| 323 | over and over how terrible and painful it is to be working through |
| 324 | these horrid expressions of melancholy which aren't really so |
| 325 | terrible.</p> |
| 326 | |
| 327 | <p>James's view is that a state of melancholy is merely a transitional |
| 328 | stage that comes before a second mental birth occurs, and allows for a |
| 329 | deep religious belief to set in. Most of the remainder of the lecture |
| 330 | series is dedicated to analyzing the mind of the Second Born which he |
| 331 | sees are far deeper spiritually than the simple positive Once Born |
| 332 | type (depsite his previous praise of <em>mind-cure</em>).</p> |
| 333 | |
| 334 | |
| 335 | <h3><a name="sec6" id="sec6"></a> |
| 336 | Lecture VIII: &quot;The Divided Self, and the Process of Its Unificiation&quot;</h3> |
| 337 | |
| 338 | <p class="first">Here the lectures return to things mildly interesting with an overview |
| 339 | of heterogenous personalities and a few passages on unificiation of |
| 340 | conflicting desires. James splits unificiations into gradual and |
| 341 | sudden ones giving examples of each. This lecture is the bridge |
| 342 | between lectures V through VII and the material on conversion.</p> |
| 343 | |
| 344 | |
| 345 | <h3><a name="sec7" id="sec7"></a> |
| 346 | Lectures IX and X: &quot;Conversion&quot;</h3> |
| 347 | |
| 348 | |
| 349 | <ul> |
| 350 | <li>conversion allows for unification of divided self</li> |
| 351 | <li>Definition of Association</li> |
| 352 | <li>Conversion is sudden change of <em>the habitual center of personal energy</em></li> |
| 353 | <li>Examples of conversion |
| 354 | |
| 355 | <ul> |
| 356 | <li>Common people, stereotypical conversion types</li> |
| 357 | <li>Seemingly of suspect quality</li> |
| 358 | </ul></li> |
| 359 | <li>Note of the trouble of not being able to be religious |
| 360 | |
| 361 | <ul> |
| 362 | <li>Painted in a negative light!</li> |
| 363 | </ul></li> |
| 364 | |
| 365 | <li>Focus on instantaneous conversion |
| 366 | |
| 367 | <ul> |
| 368 | <li>Give prototypical example</li> |
| 369 | </ul></li> |
| 370 | </ul> |
| 371 | |
| 372 | <blockquote> |
| 373 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 374 | "Coming out of the cafe I met the carriage of Monsieur B. [the |
| 375 | proselyting friend]. He stopped and invited me in for a drive, |
| 376 | but first asked me to wait for a few minutes whilst he attended |
| 377 | to some duty at the church of San Andrea delle Fratte. Instead |
| 378 | of waiting in the carriage, I entered the church myself to look |
| 379 | at it. The church of San Andrea was poor, small, and empty; I |
| 380 | believe that I found myself there almost alone. No work of art |
| 381 | attracted my attention; and I passed my eyes mechanically over |
| 382 | its interior without being arrested by any particular thought. I |
| 383 | can only remember an entirely black dog which went trotting and |
| 384 | turning before me as I mused. In an instant the dog had |
| 385 | disappeared, the whole church had vanished, I no longer saw |
| 386 | anything, . . . or more truly I saw, O my God, one thing alone. |
| 387 | "Heavens, how can I speak of it? Oh no! human words cannot |
| 388 | attain to expressing the inexpressible. Any description, however |
| 389 | sublime it might be, could be but a profanation of the |
| 390 | unspeakable truth.</p> |
| 391 | <p class="quoted">"I was there prostrate on the ground, bathed in my tears, with my |
| 392 | heart beside itself, when M. B. called me back to life. I could |
| 393 | not reply to the questions which followed from him one upon the |
| 394 | other. But finally I took the medal which I had on my breast, |
| 395 | and with all the effusion of my soul I kissed the image of the |
| 396 | Virgin, radiant with grace, which it bore. Oh, indeed, it was |
| 397 | She! It was indeed She! [What he had seen had been a vision of |
| 398 | the Virgin.]</p> |
| 399 | <p class="quoted">"I did not know where I was: I did not know whether I was |
| 400 | Alphonse or another. I only felt myself changed and believed |
| 401 | myself another me; I looked for myself in myself and did not find |
| 402 | myself. In the bottom of my soul I felt an explosion of the most |
| 403 | ardent joy; I could not speak; I had no wish to reveal what had |
| 404 | happened. But I felt something solemn and sacred within me which |
| 405 | made me ask for a priest. I was led to one; and there alone, |
| 406 | after he had given me the positive order, I spoke as best I |
| 407 | could, kneeling, and with my heart still trembling. I could give |
| 408 | no account to myself of the truth of which I had acquired a |
| 409 | knowledge and a faith. All that I can say is that in an instant |
| 410 | the bandage had fallen from my eyes, and not one bandage only, |
| 411 | but the whole manifold of bandages in which I had been brought |
| 412 | up. One after another they rapidly disappeared, even as the mud |
| 413 | and ice disappear under the rays of the burning sun."</p> |
| 414 | |
| 415 | </blockquote> |
| 416 | |
| 417 | <ul> |
| 418 | <li>Notes recent protestant phenomemon of instantaneous conversion</li> |
| 419 | <li>Gives psychological explanation for instant conversion |
| 420 | |
| 421 | <ul> |
| 422 | <li>Field of conciousness</li> |
| 423 | <li>Subconcious on margin |
| 424 | |
| 425 | <ul> |
| 426 | <li>Subconcious life can affect concious existance</li> |
| 427 | <li>Note: cites Freud & friends as reliable</li> |
| 428 | </ul></li> |
| 429 | </ul></li> |
| 430 | </ul> |
| 431 | |
| 432 | <blockquote> |
| 433 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 434 | In the wonderful explorations by Binet, Janet, Breuer, Freud, |
| 435 | Mason, Prince, and others, of the subliminal consciousness of |
| 436 | patients with hysteria, we have revealed to us whole systems of |
| 437 | underground life, in the shape of memories of a painful sort |
| 438 | which lead a parasitic existence, buried outside of the primary |
| 439 | fields of consciousness, and making irruptions thereinto with |
| 440 | hallucinations, pains, convulsions, paralyses of feeling and of |
| 441 | motion, and the whole procession of symptoms of hysteric disease |
| 442 | of body and of mind. Alter or abolish by suggestion these |
| 443 | subconscious memories, and the patient immediately gets well. |
| 444 | His symptoms were automatisms, in Mr. Myers's sense of the word. |
| 445 | These clinical records sound like fairy-tales when one first |
| 446 | reads them, yet it is impossible to doubt their accuracy; and, |
| 447 | the path having been once opened by these first observers, |
| 448 | similar observations have been made elsewhere. They throw, as I |
| 449 | said, a wholly new light upon our natural constitution.</p> |
| 450 | |
| 451 | </blockquote> |
| 452 | |
| 453 | <ul> |
| 454 | <li>Conversion is a transfer of energies from the subconcious |
| 455 | |
| 456 | <ul> |
| 457 | <li>Changes center of focus in the field of conciousness |
| 458 | |
| 459 | <ul> |
| 460 | <li>Disproves religious nature of instant conversion argument</li> |
| 461 | </ul></li> |
| 462 | </ul></li> |
| 463 | <li>Notes that there are no discernable differences between instant |
| 464 | converts and slow converts</li> |
| 465 | </ul> |
| 466 | |
| 467 | <blockquote> |
| 468 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 469 | The believers in the non-natural character of sudden conversion |
| 470 | have had practically to admit that there is no unmistakable |
| 471 | class-mark distinctive of all true converts. The super-normal |
| 472 | incidents, such as voices and visions and overpowering |
| 473 | impressions of the meaning of suddenly presented scripture texts, |
| 474 | the melting emotions and tumultuous affections connected with the |
| 475 | crisis of change, may all come by way of nature, or worse still, |
| 476 | be counterfeited by Satan. The real witness of the spirit to the |
| 477 | second birth is to be found only in the disposition of the |
| 478 | genuine child of God, the permanently patient heart, the love of |
| 479 | self eradicated. And this, it has to be admitted, is also found |
| 480 | in those who pass no crisis, and may even be found outside of |
| 481 | Christianity altogether.</p> |
| 482 | |
| 483 | </blockquote> |
| 484 | |
| 485 | <ul> |
| 486 | <li>Instant conversion is a natural result of exposing a person with a |
| 487 | rich subconcious existence to religion and is merely one type of |
| 488 | conversion</li> |
| 489 | </ul> |
| 490 | |
| 491 | <blockquote> |
| 492 | <p class="quoted"> |
| 493 | Sharp distinctions are difficult in these regions, and Professor Coe's |
| 494 | numbers are small. But his methods were careful, and the results |
| 495 | tally with what one might expect; and they seem, on the whole, to |
| 496 | justify his practical conclusion, which is that if you should expose |
| 497 | to a converting influence a subject in whom three factors unite: |
| 498 | first, pronounced emotional sensibility; second, tendency to |
| 499 | automatisms; and third, suggestibility of the passive type; you might |
| 500 | then safely predict the result: there would be a sudden conversion, a |
| 501 | transformation of the striking kind.</p> |
| 502 | |
| 503 | </blockquote> |
| 504 | |
| 505 | <ul> |
| 506 | <li>Finishes with discussion of pre-conversion emotion |
| 507 | |
| 508 | <ul> |
| 509 | <li>Usually melancholy</li> |
| 510 | <li>Disguist at sin</li> |
| 511 | </ul></li> |
| 512 | <li>Post Conversion feeling |
| 513 | |
| 514 | <ul> |
| 515 | <li>New self</li> |
| 516 | <li>Clean</li> |
| 517 | </ul></li> |
| 518 | </ul> |
| 519 | |
| 520 | |
| 521 | <h3><a name="sec8" id="sec8"></a> |
| 522 | Lectures XI - XIII: Saintliness</h3> |
| 523 | |
| 524 | <ul> |
| 525 | <li>Descriptive assement of fruits of conversion |
| 526 | |
| 527 | <ul> |
| 528 | <li>general discussion of what causes differing character |
| 529 | |
| 530 | <ul> |
| 531 | <li>Impulse vs Inhibition |
| 532 | |
| 533 | <ul> |
| 534 | <li>Strong emotions shut down inhibition</li> |
| 535 | </ul></li> |
| 536 | </ul></li> |
| 537 | <li>Application of general principles to the results of conversion |
| 538 | |
| 539 | <ul> |
| 540 | <li>Top over point -> God works through Subliminal</li> |
| 541 | <li>Ignore how the Subliminal works |
| 542 | |
| 543 | <ul> |
| 544 | <li>[It seems that this is done to avoid concluding that there is |
| 545 | no god]</li> |
| 546 | <li>[Minimization of importance of natural processes in |
| 547 | post-convesion]</li> |
| 548 | </ul></li> |
| 549 | <li>Saintliness |
| 550 | |
| 551 | <ul> |
| 552 | <li>Four universal inner conditions</li> |
| 553 | <li>Four results of the inner conditions</li> |
| 554 | <li>EXAMPLES |
| 555 | |
| 556 | <ul> |
| 557 | <li>Prescence of a higher & friendly power</li> |
| 558 | <li>Charity (agape) love |
| 559 | |
| 560 | <ul> |
| 561 | <li>Charity not unique to theistic religions, therefore it |
| 562 | should be seen as coordinate rather than subordinate to |
| 563 | the topic of the lecture series (page 296)</li> |
| 564 | </ul></li> |
| 565 | <li>Inward Tranquillity |
| 566 | |
| 567 | <ul> |
| 568 | <li>Sombre constitution results in resignation and submission</li> |
| 569 | <li>Cheerful constitution results in joyous consent</li> |
| 570 | </ul></li> |
| 571 | <li>Purity |
| 572 | |
| 573 | <ul> |
| 574 | <li>Internal discord leads to suffering</li> |
| 575 | </ul></li> |
| 576 | <li>Ascetecism |
| 577 | |
| 578 | <ul> |
| 579 | <li>result of extreme pursuit of purity</li> |
| 580 | <li>List of sources of ascetic behavior</li> |
| 581 | <li>Ascetecism in monks |
| 582 | |
| 583 | <ul> |
| 584 | <li>Obedience |
| 585 | |
| 586 | <ul> |
| 587 | <li>Low reasons |
| 588 | |
| 589 | <ul> |
| 590 | <li>Obedience expedient in ecclesiastical organizations</li> |
| 591 | <li>External counsel at certain times is better than |
| 592 | internal</li> |
| 593 | </ul></li> |
| 594 | <li>High Reason |
| 595 | |
| 596 | <ul> |
| 597 | <li>Inner softening</li> |
| 598 | </ul></li> |
| 599 | <li>Catholic view as sacrifice |
| 600 | |
| 601 | <ul> |
| 602 | <li>[quote p.274 "sacrifice which man offers to God..."]</li> |
| 603 | <li>passages by member of the order of St Ignatius</li> |
| 604 | </ul></li> |
| 605 | </ul></li> |
| 606 | <li>Poverty |
| 607 | |
| 608 | <ul> |
| 609 | <li>Things steal freedom, therefore a life of doing/being |
| 610 | is superior</li> |
| 611 | </ul></li> |
| 612 | </ul></li> |
| 613 | </ul></li> |
| 614 | </ul></li> |
| 615 | </ul></li> |
| 616 | </ul></li> |
| 617 | </ul></li> |
| 618 | </ul> |
| 619 | |
| 620 | |
| 621 | <h3><a name="sec9" id="sec9"></a> |
| 622 | Lectures XIV-XV: The Value of Saintliness</h3> |
| 623 | |
| 624 | <ul> |
| 625 | <li>Critique of Saintliness |
| 626 | |
| 627 | <ul> |
| 628 | <li>Using empirical methods (unlike Catholics) |
| 629 | |
| 630 | <ul> |
| 631 | <li>Humans cannot differentiate between natural and supernatural |
| 632 | effects</li> |
| 633 | </ul></li> |
| 634 | <li>(Defense of Methodology) |
| 635 | |
| 636 | <ul> |
| 637 | <li>Current religious views result of empiricism |
| 638 | |
| 639 | <ul> |
| 640 | <li>Rejection of former gods over time as they cease to serve our |
| 641 | needs</li> |
| 642 | </ul></li> |
| 643 | <li>Must be skeptical (not unreasonably so however) of current |
| 644 | beliefs |
| 645 | |
| 646 | <ul> |
| 647 | <li>Humans are fallible; admitting this brings us closer to truth |
| 648 | by enabling discussion of flaws in beliefs</li> |
| 649 | <li>Quite probably that no one religion is entirely correct</li> |
| 650 | </ul></li> |
| 651 | </ul></li> |
| 652 | </ul></li> |
| 653 | <li>Concerned with personal religious experiences, and not with |
| 654 | instutitional religion [reiteration from second lecture] |
| 655 | |
| 656 | <ul> |
| 657 | <li>Ideas of a prophet -> heterodoxy -> heresy (if accepted by |
| 658 | others) -> orthodxy (if survives persection) |
| 659 | |
| 660 | <ul> |
| 661 | <li>Cycle then begins anew</li> |
| 662 | </ul></li> |
| 663 | <li>Religion itself cannot be blamed for evils committed</li> |
| 664 | </ul></li> |
| 665 | <li>Extreme Saintliness due to excess |
| 666 | |
| 667 | <ul> |
| 668 | <li>In men, excess is due to lack of balance, or excessively strong |
| 669 | personality elements mixed with weak ones |
| 670 | |
| 671 | <ul> |
| 672 | <li>If all faculities are strong and cooperate one has a strong |
| 673 | character rather than one plagued by excess</li> |
| 674 | <li>Extremely saintly people have strong spiritual faculities, but |
| 675 | deficient ability to perceive extravagane |
| 676 | |
| 677 | <ul> |
| 678 | <li>Leads to excessie self-denial</li> |
| 679 | <li>Still useful as archetypes</li> |
| 680 | </ul></li> |
| 681 | </ul></li> |
| 682 | </ul></li> |
| 683 | <li>Four Virtues & Unbalanced Forms |
| 684 | |
| 685 | <ul> |
| 686 | <li>Devoutness |
| 687 | |
| 688 | <ul> |
| 689 | <li>Fanatacism |
| 690 | |
| 691 | <ul> |
| 692 | <li>Strong character mixed with narrow mind</li> |
| 693 | </ul></li> |
| 694 | <li>Theopathy (cointed by WJ to describe excess devoutness) |
| 695 | |
| 696 | <ul> |
| 697 | <li>Excess of devotion with feeble mind</li> |
| 698 | <li>Person becomes absorbed in inward love of/from God</li> |
| 699 | </ul></li> |
| 700 | </ul></li> |
| 701 | <li>Purity |
| 702 | |
| 703 | <ul> |
| 704 | <li>Narrow mindedness results on love of God replacing all other |
| 705 | love</li> |
| 706 | <li>In aggressive types stamps external disorder from existence</li> |
| 707 | <li>In passive types disorder is eliminated internall by secluding |
| 708 | self |
| 709 | |
| 710 | <ul> |
| 711 | <li>Example: Lous of Gonzaga</li> |
| 712 | <li>Such a life was seen as good in the 16th century, but in the |
| 713 | early 20th was seen as repulsive due to secular changes (more |
| 714 | value being placed on helping society than merely saving |
| 715 | oneself)</li> |
| 716 | </ul></li> |
| 717 | </ul></li> |
| 718 | <li>Charity / Tenderness |
| 719 | |
| 720 | <ul> |
| 721 | <li>Saintly 'Resist No Evil' versus Worldy Pragmatic Standpoint |
| 722 | |
| 723 | <ul> |
| 724 | <li>No simple answer</li> |
| 725 | </ul></li> |
| 726 | <li>Perfect conduct relation between actor, objects acted upon, and |
| 727 | recipients of the action |
| 728 | |
| 729 | <ul> |
| 730 | <li>Best intentions fail when executed incorrectly or addressed |
| 731 | to the wrong recipient</li> |
| 732 | <li>Thus cannot judge charity by actor alone</li> |
| 733 | </ul></li> |
| 734 | <li>Saintly charity works in a perfect world |
| 735 | |
| 736 | <ul> |
| 737 | <li>Excessive in the World That Is</li> |
| 738 | <li>Evil takes advantage of charity</li> |
| 739 | <li>However, the world would be far worse without charitable |
| 740 | people |
| 741 | |
| 742 | <ul> |
| 743 | <li>Treating others charitably inspires others to become |
| 744 | better</li> |
| 745 | <li>Exposure to an excessively charitable person softens a |
| 746 | person</li> |
| 747 | <li>Without this type all would lie in spiritual stagnation</li> |
| 748 | </ul></li> |
| 749 | <li>Therefore even excessive charity has value |
| 750 | |
| 751 | <ul> |
| 752 | <li>Force destroys enemies</li> |
| 753 | <li>Prudence at best resists enemies</li> |
| 754 | <li>Non-resistance / Charity turns enemies into friends</li> |
| 755 | </ul></li> |
| 756 | <li>Though excessive, the saint makes the world a better place |
| 757 | |
| 758 | <ul> |
| 759 | <li>Compare to Utopianists and Anarchists</li> |
| 760 | </ul></li> |
| 761 | </ul></li> |
| 762 | </ul></li> |
| 763 | <li>Ascetecism |
| 764 | |
| 765 | <ul> |
| 766 | <li>Virtue most prone to excess</li> |
| 767 | <li>It seems at first those wo are excessively ascetic are still |
| 768 | inwardly attached to the world |
| 769 | |
| 770 | <ul> |
| 771 | <li>If one were truly liberated he would not need excessive |
| 772 | moritification</li> |
| 773 | </ul></li> |
| 774 | <li>Different view: Ascetic sees wrongs in the world, and rather |
| 775 | than ignore them he conquers them internally |
| 776 | |
| 777 | <ul> |
| 778 | <li>One who does not fear Death seems strong</li> |
| 779 | </ul></li> |
| 780 | <li>Ascetecism is a profounder way of handling excistence than |
| 781 | simple optimistic naturalism |
| 782 | |
| 783 | <ul> |
| 784 | <li>In the modern time, people should throw away useless |
| 785 | asceticism and embrace useful aspects</li> |
| 786 | <li>Attributes of early 20th century life and weakened churching |
| 787 | breed weaker character |
| 788 | |
| 789 | <ul> |
| 790 | <li>Militarism used as a subtitute for religious ascetecism |
| 791 | |
| 792 | <ul> |
| 793 | <li>Poor subtitute |
| 794 | |
| 795 | <ul> |
| 796 | <li>Speaks to the base and brutish aspects of human nature</li> |
| 797 | </ul></li> |
| 798 | </ul></li> |
| 799 | <li>Ascetic poverty much superior to militarism/war |
| 800 | |
| 801 | <ul> |
| 802 | <li>WJ believes it <strong>must</strong> be embraced to fight evils of the |
| 803 | time [quote page 319-320]</li> |
| 804 | <li>Desire to gain wealth breeds cowardice and corruption |
| 805 | |
| 806 | <ul> |
| 807 | <li>Wealthy man enslaved to riches</li> |
| 808 | <li>Poor man lacks chains |
| 809 | - Single attributes of saintliness are found in the non-religious |
| 810 | - Combination of all forms is religious in nature |
| 811 | - Flows from sense of divine order |
| 812 | - Saintly person palces happiness internally rather than deriving |
| 813 | from comfort |
| 814 | - Saintly attributes mixed with narrow mind results in terrible |
| 815 | excessive forms |
| 816 | - We should not, however, place blame for narrow mindedness |
| 817 | entirely on the individual |
| 818 | - Essentials vs Accidents of saintliness |
| 819 | - Dislike of Saintly character |
| 820 | - Man traditionally worships strong leaders |
| 821 | - Saints are weak and passive |
| 822 | - Male vs Female nature [think Yin vs Yang] |
| 823 | - Many suppose there is one ideal type of character |
| 824 | - Empiricism rejects this as foolish |
| 825 | - On the one hande the saintly character is better than the |
| 826 | strongman becaue he is adapted to life in a perfect society |
| 827 | - On the other in the real world he would be ill adapted |
| 828 | - Mixture of the two characters useful [think Nietzsche's |
| 829 | uebermensch or Taoist] |
| 830 | - Saintly character has real value</li> |
| 831 | </ul></li> |
| 832 | </ul></li> |
| 833 | </ul></li> |
| 834 | </ul></li> |
| 835 | </ul></li> |
| 836 | </ul></li> |
| 837 | </ul> |
| 838 | |
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