| 1 | * William James - [[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/621][Varieties of Religious Experience]] (=In progress=) |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ; - book version of lecture series |
| 4 | ; - large set of quotes with commentary |
| 5 | ; - Most are similar in nature (too many) |
| 6 | ; - Seemingly suspect in quality |
| 7 | ; - Always *perfectly* support his argument (selection process) |
| 8 | ; - Many accounts from personal correspondence |
| 9 | ; - Some are quite interesting |
| 10 | ; - Luther, Tolstoy, ... |
| 11 | ; - arguments a bit weak |
| 12 | ; - e.g. cites Freud as being true (Lecture X) |
| 13 | ; - Seems to take the (then new) discipline of psychology far too |
| 14 | ; seriously |
| 15 | ; - Uses questionable arguments |
| 16 | ; - Model of the subconcious (Lecture IX), etc. |
| 17 | ; - Depsite flaws still somewhat interesting |
| 18 | ; - Some quotations are interesting |
| 19 | |
| 20 | The *Varieties of Religious Experience* is a set of twenty lectures on |
| 21 | religious experience from a psychological perspective. The quality of |
| 22 | the method used is a bit suspect, but my understanding is that it was |
| 23 | one of the first pyschological surveys of religion, and so could |
| 24 | perhaps be forgiven of a few flaws. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | I found parts to be boring, and others to have flawed reasoning, but |
| 27 | with a few lectures that were interesting. At the very least the |
| 28 | lectures give a reasonable glimpse into the religous fashion of the |
| 29 | late 1800s. There is a small bit of social commentary thrown in that |
| 30 | is cited by John Gatto in his *Underground History of American |
| 31 | Education*, which is why I chose to read this. |
| 32 | |
| 33 | ** Lectures I and II |
| 34 | |
| 35 | The first two lectures lay the groundwork for the lecture series. The |
| 36 | first covers a few views on what religious experience is, and gives |
| 37 | refutations (although not terribly good ones now, perhaps they were |
| 38 | seen as fine in the early 1900s) to a few deterministic theories. The |
| 39 | second lecture defines the scope of the topic to be covered, and |
| 40 | limits the definitions of religion and spirituality. |
| 41 | |
| 42 | ; Quote defintions of religion and spirituality |
| 43 | <quote> |
| 44 | Religion, therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to take it, shall |
| 45 | mean for us *the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in |
| 46 | their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in |
| 47 | relation to whatever they may consider the divine*. Since the |
| 48 | relation may be either moral, physical, or ritual, it is evident that |
| 49 | out of religion in the sense in which we take it, theologies, |
| 50 | philosophies, and ecclesiastical organizations may secondarily grow. |
| 51 | In these lectures, however, as I have already said, the immediate |
| 52 | personal experiences will amply fill our time, and we shall hardly |
| 53 | consider theology or ecclesiasticism at all. |
| 54 | </quote> |
| 55 | |
| 56 | In the second lecture James's first extremely arbitrary distinction is |
| 57 | made; he compares the stoicism espoused by Marcus Aurelius to |
| 58 | Christian writings and draws what I think is a nonexistent difference |
| 59 | between the two. It is my opinion that the Stoic is just as religious |
| 60 | by James's definition as the Christian; the stoic merely sees the |
| 61 | Universe as his god and makes conformance to the natural order his |
| 62 | ideal. The Stoic actively embraces the natural order just as the |
| 63 | Christian actively loves his god; the difference is merely in whether |
| 64 | God is seen as a definite individual or not. |
| 65 | |
| 66 | <quote> |
| 67 | If we compare stoic with Christian ejaculations we see much more |
| 68 | than a difference of doctrine; rather is it a difference of |
| 69 | emotional mood that parts them. When Marcus Aurelius reflects on |
| 70 | the eternal reason that has ordered things, there is a frosty |
| 71 | chill about his words which you rarely find in a Jewish, and |
| 72 | never in a Christian piece of religious writing. The universe is |
| 73 | "accepted" by all these writers; but how devoid of passion or |
| 74 | exultation the spirit of the Roman Emperor is! Compare his fine |
| 75 | sentence: "If gods care not for me or my children, here is a |
| 76 | reason for it," with Job's cry: "Though he slay me, yet will I |
| 77 | trust in him!" and you immediately see the difference I mean. |
| 78 | The anima mundi, to whose disposal of his own personal destiny |
| 79 | the Stoic consents, is there to be respected and submitted to, |
| 80 | but the Christian God is there to be loved; and the difference of |
| 81 | emotional atmosphere is like that between an arctic climate and |
| 82 | the tropics, though the outcome in the way of accepting actual |
| 83 | conditions uncomplainingly may seem in abstract terms to be much |
| 84 | the same. |
| 85 | </quote> |
| 86 | |
| 87 | ** Lecture III: "The Reality of the Unseen" |
| 88 | |
| 89 | The third lecture consists of a brief overview of various |
| 90 | interpretations of the structure of the unseen world. An argument for |
| 91 | a dualistic universe is then given using a few passages on spiritual |
| 92 | encounters as supposed proof. James criticizes strict rationalism as |
| 93 | well. |
| 94 | |
| 95 | <quote> |
| 96 | Nevertheless, if we look on man's whole mental life as it exists, on |
| 97 | the life of men that lies in them apart from their learning and |
| 98 | science, and that they inwardly and privately follow, we have to |
| 99 | confess that the part of it of which rationalism can give an account |
| 100 | is relatively superficial. It is the part that has the prestige |
| 101 | undoubtedly, for it has the loquacity, it can challenge you for |
| 102 | proofs, and chop logic, and put you down with words. But it will fail |
| 103 | to convince or convert you all the same, if your dumb intuitions are |
| 104 | opposed to its conclusions. If you have intuitions at all, they come |
| 105 | from a deeper level of your nature than the loquacious level which |
| 106 | rationalism inhabits. Your whole subconscious life, your impulses, |
| 107 | your faiths, your needs, your divinations, have prepared the premises, |
| 108 | of which your consciousness now feels the weight of the result; and |
| 109 | something in you absolutely *knows* that that result must be truer than |
| 110 | any logic-chopping rationalistic talk, however clever, that may |
| 111 | contradict it. This inferiority of the rationalistic level in |
| 112 | founding belief is just as manifest when rationalism argues for |
| 113 | religion as when it argues against it. That vast literature of proofs |
| 114 | of God's existence drawn from the order of nature, which a century ago |
| 115 | seemed so overwhelmingly convincing, to-day does little more than |
| 116 | gather dust in libraries, for the simple reason that our generation |
| 117 | has ceased to believe in the kind of God it argued for. Whatever sort |
| 118 | of a being God may be, we *know* to-day that he is nevermore that mere |
| 119 | external inventor of "contrivances" intended to make manifest his |
| 120 | "glory" in which our great-grandfathers took such satisfaction, though |
| 121 | just how we know this we cannot possibly make clear by words either to |
| 122 | others or to ourselves. I defy any of you here fully to account for |
| 123 | your persuasion that if a God exist he must be a more cosmic and |
| 124 | tragic personage than that Being. |
| 125 | </quote> |
| 126 | |
| 127 | ** Lectures IV and V: "The Religion of Healthy Mindedness" |
| 128 | |
| 129 | Lecture IV is an interesting read and surveys a few positive minded |
| 130 | philosophies, but Lecture V focuses entirely on the *mind-cure* |
| 131 | movement. William James then gives a terrible argument for the |
| 132 | validity of *mind-cure*, and compares it to science while neglecting the |
| 133 | complete lack of objectivity in the methods of test the effects of |
| 134 | *mind-cure*. |
| 135 | |
| 136 | <quote> |
| 137 | It is a deliberately optimistic scheme of life, with both a |
| 138 | speculative and a practical side. In its gradual development during |
| 139 | the last quarter of a century, it has taken up into itself a number |
| 140 | of contributory elements, and it must now be reckoned with as a |
| 141 | genuine religious power. It has reached the stage, for example, when |
| 142 | the demand for its literature is great enough for insincere stuff, |
| 143 | mechanically produced for the market, to be to a certain extent |
| 144 | supplied by publishers--a phenomenon never observed, I imagine, until |
| 145 | a religion has got well past its earliest insecure beginnings. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | ... |
| 148 | |
| 149 | The plain fact remains that the spread of the movement has been |
| 150 | due to practical fruits, and the extremely practical turn of |
| 151 | character of the American people has never been better shown than |
| 152 | by the fact that this, their only decidedly original contribution |
| 153 | to the systematic philosophy of life, should be so intimately |
| 154 | knit up with concrete therapeutics. To the importance of |
| 155 | mind-cure the medical and clerical professions in the United |
| 156 | States are beginning, though with much recalcitrancy and |
| 157 | protesting, to open their eyes. It is evidently bound to develop |
| 158 | still farther, both speculatively and practically, and its latest |
| 159 | writers are far and away the ablest of the group. It matters |
| 160 | nothing that, just as there are hosts of persons who cannot pray, |
| 161 | so there are greater hosts who cannot by any possibility be |
| 162 | influenced by the mind-curers' ideas. For our immediate purpose, |
| 163 | the important point is that so large a number should exist who |
| 164 | *can* be so influenced. They form a psychic type to be studied |
| 165 | with respect. |
| 166 | </quote> |
| 167 | |
| 168 | The lectures are ended with an argument for the validity of *mind-cure* |
| 169 | that compares it directly to science with a clear anti-science bias. |
| 170 | |
| 171 | <quote> |
| 172 | These are exceedingly trivial instances [*the first-hand accounts of |
| 173 | mind-cure working given in the lecture*], but in them, if we |
| 174 | have anything at all, we have the method of experiment and |
| 175 | verification. For the point I am driving at now, it makes no |
| 176 | difference whether you consider the patients to be deluded |
| 177 | victims of their imagination or not. That they seemed to |
| 178 | *themselves* to have been cured by the experiments tried was enough |
| 179 | to make them converts to the system. And although it is evident |
| 180 | that one must be of a certain mental mould to get such results |
| 181 | (for not every one can get thus cured to his own satisfaction any |
| 182 | more than every one can be cured by the first regular |
| 183 | practitioner whom he calls in), yet it would surely be pedantic |
| 184 | and over-scrupulous for those who *can* get their savage and |
| 185 | primitive philosophy of mental healing verified in such |
| 186 | experimental ways as this, to give them up at word of command for |
| 187 | more scientific therapeutics. |
| 188 | |
| 189 | What are we to think of all this? Has science made too wide a |
| 190 | claim? |
| 191 | |
| 192 | I believe that the claims of the sectarian scientist are, to say |
| 193 | the least, premature. The experiences which we have been |
| 194 | studying during this hour (and a great many other kinds of |
| 195 | religious experiences are like them) plainly show the universe to |
| 196 | be a more many-sided affair than any sect, even the scientific |
| 197 | sect, allows for. What, in the end, are all our verifications |
| 198 | but experiences that agree with more or less isolated systems of |
| 199 | ideas (conceptual systems) that our minds have framed? But why |
| 200 | in the name of common sense need we assume that only one such |
| 201 | system of ideas can be true? The obvious outcome of our total |
| 202 | experience is that the world can be handled according to many |
| 203 | systems of ideas, and is so handled by different men, and will |
| 204 | each time give some characteristic kind of profit, for which he |
| 205 | cares, to the handler, while at the same time some other kind of |
| 206 | profit has to be omitted or postponed. Science gives to all of |
| 207 | us telegraphy, electric lighting, and diagnosis, and succeeds in |
| 208 | preventing and curing a certain amount of disease. Religion in |
| 209 | the shape of mind-cure gives to some of us serenity, moral poise, |
| 210 | and happiness, and prevents certain forms of disease as well as |
| 211 | science does, or even better in a certain class of persons. |
| 212 | Evidently, then, the science and the religion are both of them |
| 213 | genuine keys for unlocking the world's treasure-house to him who |
| 214 | can use either of them practically. Just as evidently neither is |
| 215 | exhaustive or exclusive of the other's simultaneous use. And |
| 216 | why, after all, may not the world be so complex as to consist of |
| 217 | many interpenetrating spheres of reality, which we can thus |
| 218 | approach in alternation by using different conceptions and |
| 219 | assuming different attitudes, just as mathematicians handle the |
| 220 | same numerical and spatial facts by geometry, by analytical |
| 221 | geometry, by algebra, by the calculus, or by quaternions, and |
| 222 | each time come out right? On this view religion and science, |
| 223 | each verified in its own way from hour to hour and from life to |
| 224 | life, would be co-eternal. Primitive thought, with its belief in |
| 225 | individualized personal forces, seems at any rate as far as ever |
| 226 | from being driven by science from the field to-day. Numbers of |
| 227 | educated people still find it the directest experimental channel |
| 228 | by which to carry on their intercourse with reality |
| 229 | </quote> |
| 230 | |
| 231 | He draws a very strong conclusion that would be difficult to draw from |
| 232 | even quality evidence and objective trials; this drawn from subjective |
| 233 | personal accounts with no controlled testing method. A representative |
| 234 | example follows of his evidence follows. |
| 235 | |
| 236 | <quote> |
| 237 | "One of my first experiences in applying my teaching was two |
| 238 | months after I first saw the healer. I fell, spraining my right |
| 239 | ankle, which I had done once four years before, having then had |
| 240 | to use a crutch and elastic anklet for some months, and carefully |
| 241 | guarding it ever since. As soon as I was on my feet I made the |
| 242 | positive suggestion (and felt it through all my being): 'There |
| 243 | is nothing but God, and all life comes from him perfectly. I |
| 244 | cannot be sprained or hurt, I will let him take care of it.' |
| 245 | Well, I never had a sensation in it, and I walked two miles that |
| 246 | day." |
| 247 | </quote> |
| 248 | |
| 249 | Ignoring any other problems in William James's argument, it is clear |
| 250 | that his conclusion is far too heavy to rest upon the evidence he has |
| 251 | chosen to use. |
| 252 | |
| 253 | ** Lectures VI and VII: "The Sick Soul" |
| 254 | |
| 255 | The lectures on the Sick Soul are filled with rather weak quotations |
| 256 | (excepting a few short passages of Tolstoy). The reader is reminded |
| 257 | over and over how terrible and painful it is to be working through |
| 258 | these horrid expressions of melancholy which aren't really so |
| 259 | terrible. |
| 260 | |
| 261 | James's view is that a state of melancholy is merely a transitional |
| 262 | stage that comes before a second mental birth occurs, and allows for a |
| 263 | deep religious belief to set in. Most of the remainder of the lecture |
| 264 | series is dedicated to analyzing the mind of the Second Born which he |
| 265 | sees are far deeper spiritually than the simple positive Once Born |
| 266 | type (depsite his previous praise of *mind-cure*). |
| 267 | |
| 268 | ** Lecture VIII: "The Divided Self, and the Process of Its Unificiation" |
| 269 | |
| 270 | Here the lectures return to things mildly interesting with an overview |
| 271 | of heterogenous personalities and a few passages on unificiation of |
| 272 | conflicting desires. James splits unificiations into gradual and |
| 273 | sudden ones giving examples of each. This lecture is the bridge |
| 274 | between lectures V through VII and the material on conversion. |
| 275 | |
| 276 | ** Lectures IX and X: "Conversion" |
| 277 | |
| 278 | ; IX |
| 279 | - conversion allows for unification of divided self |
| 280 | - Definition of Association |
| 281 | - Conversion is sudden change of *the habitual center of personal energy* |
| 282 | - Examples of conversion |
| 283 | - Common people, stereotypical conversion types |
| 284 | - Seemingly of suspect quality |
| 285 | - Note of the trouble of not being able to be religious |
| 286 | - Painted in a negative light! |
| 287 | ; X |
| 288 | - Focus on instantaneous conversion |
| 289 | - Give prototypical example |
| 290 | |
| 291 | <quote> |
| 292 | "Coming out of the cafe I met the carriage of Monsieur B. [the |
| 293 | proselyting friend]. He stopped and invited me in for a drive, |
| 294 | but first asked me to wait for a few minutes whilst he attended |
| 295 | to some duty at the church of San Andrea delle Fratte. Instead |
| 296 | of waiting in the carriage, I entered the church myself to look |
| 297 | at it. The church of San Andrea was poor, small, and empty; I |
| 298 | believe that I found myself there almost alone. No work of art |
| 299 | attracted my attention; and I passed my eyes mechanically over |
| 300 | its interior without being arrested by any particular thought. I |
| 301 | can only remember an entirely black dog which went trotting and |
| 302 | turning before me as I mused. In an instant the dog had |
| 303 | disappeared, the whole church had vanished, I no longer saw |
| 304 | anything, . . . or more truly I saw, O my God, one thing alone. |
| 305 | "Heavens, how can I speak of it? Oh no! human words cannot |
| 306 | attain to expressing the inexpressible. Any description, however |
| 307 | sublime it might be, could be but a profanation of the |
| 308 | unspeakable truth. |
| 309 | |
| 310 | "I was there prostrate on the ground, bathed in my tears, with my |
| 311 | heart beside itself, when M. B. called me back to life. I could |
| 312 | not reply to the questions which followed from him one upon the |
| 313 | other. But finally I took the medal which I had on my breast, |
| 314 | and with all the effusion of my soul I kissed the image of the |
| 315 | Virgin, radiant with grace, which it bore. Oh, indeed, it was |
| 316 | She! It was indeed She! [What he had seen had been a vision of |
| 317 | the Virgin.] |
| 318 | |
| 319 | "I did not know where I was: I did not know whether I was |
| 320 | Alphonse or another. I only felt myself changed and believed |
| 321 | myself another me; I looked for myself in myself and did not find |
| 322 | myself. In the bottom of my soul I felt an explosion of the most |
| 323 | ardent joy; I could not speak; I had no wish to reveal what had |
| 324 | happened. But I felt something solemn and sacred within me which |
| 325 | made me ask for a priest. I was led to one; and there alone, |
| 326 | after he had given me the positive order, I spoke as best I |
| 327 | could, kneeling, and with my heart still trembling. I could give |
| 328 | no account to myself of the truth of which I had acquired a |
| 329 | knowledge and a faith. All that I can say is that in an instant |
| 330 | the bandage had fallen from my eyes, and not one bandage only, |
| 331 | but the whole manifold of bandages in which I had been brought |
| 332 | up. One after another they rapidly disappeared, even as the mud |
| 333 | and ice disappear under the rays of the burning sun." |
| 334 | </quote> |
| 335 | |
| 336 | - Notes recent protestant phenomemon of instantaneous conversion |
| 337 | - Gives psychological explanation for instant conversion |
| 338 | - Field of conciousness |
| 339 | - Subconcious on margin |
| 340 | - Subconcious life can affect concious existance |
| 341 | - Note: cites Freud & friends as reliable |
| 342 | |
| 343 | <quote> |
| 344 | In the wonderful explorations by Binet, Janet, Breuer, Freud, |
| 345 | Mason, Prince, and others, of the subliminal consciousness of |
| 346 | patients with hysteria, we have revealed to us whole systems of |
| 347 | underground life, in the shape of memories of a painful sort |
| 348 | which lead a parasitic existence, buried outside of the primary |
| 349 | fields of consciousness, and making irruptions thereinto with |
| 350 | hallucinations, pains, convulsions, paralyses of feeling and of |
| 351 | motion, and the whole procession of symptoms of hysteric disease |
| 352 | of body and of mind. Alter or abolish by suggestion these |
| 353 | subconscious memories, and the patient immediately gets well. |
| 354 | His symptoms were automatisms, in Mr. Myers's sense of the word. |
| 355 | These clinical records sound like fairy-tales when one first |
| 356 | reads them, yet it is impossible to doubt their accuracy; and, |
| 357 | the path having been once opened by these first observers, |
| 358 | similar observations have been made elsewhere. They throw, as I |
| 359 | said, a wholly new light upon our natural constitution. |
| 360 | </quote> |
| 361 | |
| 362 | - Conversion is a transfer of energies from the subconcious |
| 363 | - Changes center of focus in the field of conciousness |
| 364 | - Disproves religious nature of instant conversion argument |
| 365 | - Notes that there are no discernable differences between instant |
| 366 | converts and slow converts |
| 367 | |
| 368 | <quote> |
| 369 | The believers in the non-natural character of sudden conversion |
| 370 | have had practically to admit that there is no unmistakable |
| 371 | class-mark distinctive of all true converts. The super-normal |
| 372 | incidents, such as voices and visions and overpowering |
| 373 | impressions of the meaning of suddenly presented scripture texts, |
| 374 | the melting emotions and tumultuous affections connected with the |
| 375 | crisis of change, may all come by way of nature, or worse still, |
| 376 | be counterfeited by Satan. The real witness of the spirit to the |
| 377 | second birth is to be found only in the disposition of the |
| 378 | genuine child of God, the permanently patient heart, the love of |
| 379 | self eradicated. And this, it has to be admitted, is also found |
| 380 | in those who pass no crisis, and may even be found outside of |
| 381 | Christianity altogether. |
| 382 | </quote> |
| 383 | |
| 384 | - Instant conversion is a natural result of exposing a person with a |
| 385 | rich subconcious existence to religion and is merely one type of |
| 386 | conversion |
| 387 | |
| 388 | <quote> |
| 389 | Sharp distinctions are difficult in these regions, and Professor Coe's |
| 390 | numbers are small. But his methods were careful, and the results |
| 391 | tally with what one might expect; and they seem, on the whole, to |
| 392 | justify his practical conclusion, which is that if you should expose |
| 393 | to a converting influence a subject in whom three factors unite: |
| 394 | first, pronounced emotional sensibility; second, tendency to |
| 395 | automatisms; and third, suggestibility of the passive type; you might |
| 396 | then safely predict the result: there would be a sudden conversion, a |
| 397 | transformation of the striking kind. |
| 398 | </quote> |
| 399 | |
| 400 | - Finishes with discussion of pre-conversion emotion |
| 401 | - Usually melancholy |
| 402 | - Disguist at sin |
| 403 | - Post Conversion feeling |
| 404 | - New self |
| 405 | - Clean |
| 406 | |
| 407 | ** Lectures XI - XIII: Saintliness |
| 408 | |
| 409 | - Descriptive assement of fruits of conversion |
| 410 | - general discussion of what causes differing character |
| 411 | - Impulse vs Inhibition |
| 412 | - Strong emotions shut down inhibition |
| 413 | - Application of general principles to the results of conversion |
| 414 | - Top over point -> God works through Subliminal |
| 415 | - Ignore how the Subliminal works |
| 416 | - [It seems that this is done to avoid concluding that there is |
| 417 | no god] |
| 418 | - [Minimization of importance of natural processes in |
| 419 | post-convesion] |
| 420 | - Saintliness |
| 421 | - Four universal inner conditions |
| 422 | - Four results of the inner conditions |
| 423 | - EXAMPLES |
| 424 | - Prescence of a higher & friendly power |
| 425 | - Charity (agape) love |
| 426 | - Charity not unique to theistic religions, therefore it |
| 427 | should be seen as coordinate rather than subordinate to |
| 428 | the topic of the lecture series (page 296) |
| 429 | - Inward Tranquillity |
| 430 | - Sombre constitution results in resignation and submission |
| 431 | - Cheerful constitution results in joyous consent |
| 432 | - Purity |
| 433 | - Internal discord leads to suffering |
| 434 | - Ascetecism |
| 435 | - result of extreme pursuit of purity |
| 436 | - List of sources of ascetic behavior |
| 437 | - Ascetecism in monks |
| 438 | - Obedience |
| 439 | - Low reasons |
| 440 | - Obedience expedient in ecclesiastical organizations |
| 441 | - External counsel at certain times is better than |
| 442 | internal |
| 443 | - High Reason |
| 444 | - Inner softening |
| 445 | - Catholic view as sacrifice |
| 446 | - [quote p.274 "sacrifice which man offers to God..."] |
| 447 | - passages by member of the order of St Ignatius |
| 448 | - Poverty |
| 449 | - Things steal freedom, therefore a life of doing/being |
| 450 | is superior |
| 451 | |
| 452 | ** Lectures XIV-XV: The Value of Saintliness |
| 453 | |
| 454 | - Critique of Saintliness |
| 455 | - Using empirical methods (unlike Catholics) |
| 456 | - Humans cannot differentiate between natural and supernatural |
| 457 | effects |
| 458 | - (Defense of Methodology) |
| 459 | - Current religious views result of empiricism |
| 460 | - Rejection of former gods over time as they cease to serve our |
| 461 | needs |
| 462 | - Must be skeptical (not unreasonably so however) of current |
| 463 | beliefs |
| 464 | - Humans are fallible; admitting this brings us closer to truth |
| 465 | by enabling discussion of flaws in beliefs |
| 466 | - Quite probably that no one religion is entirely correct |
| 467 | - Concerned with personal religious experiences, and not with |
| 468 | instutitional religion [reiteration from second lecture] |
| 469 | - Ideas of a prophet -> heterodoxy -> heresy (if accepted by |
| 470 | others) -> orthodxy (if survives persection) |
| 471 | - Cycle then begins anew |
| 472 | - Religion itself cannot be blamed for evils committed |
| 473 | - Extreme Saintliness due to excess |
| 474 | - In men, excess is due to lack of balance, or excessively strong |
| 475 | personality elements mixed with weak ones |
| 476 | - If all faculities are strong and cooperate one has a strong |
| 477 | character rather than one plagued by excess |
| 478 | - Extremely saintly people have strong spiritual faculities, but |
| 479 | deficient ability to perceive extravagane |
| 480 | - Leads to excessie self-denial |
| 481 | - Still useful as archetypes |
| 482 | - Four Virtues & Unbalanced Forms |
| 483 | - Devoutness |
| 484 | - Fanatacism |
| 485 | - Strong character mixed with narrow mind |
| 486 | - Theopathy (cointed by WJ to describe excess devoutness) |
| 487 | - Excess of devotion with feeble mind |
| 488 | - Person becomes absorbed in inward love of/from God |
| 489 | - Purity |
| 490 | - Narrow mindedness results on love of God replacing all other |
| 491 | love |
| 492 | - In aggressive types stamps external disorder from existence |
| 493 | - In passive types disorder is eliminated internall by secluding |
| 494 | self |
| 495 | - Example: Lous of Gonzaga |
| 496 | - Such a life was seen as good in the 16th century, but in the |
| 497 | early 20th was seen as repulsive due to secular changes (more |
| 498 | value being placed on helping society than merely saving |
| 499 | oneself) |
| 500 | - Charity / Tenderness |
| 501 | - Saintly 'Resist No Evil' versus Worldy Pragmatic Standpoint |
| 502 | - No simple answer |
| 503 | - Perfect conduct relation between actor, objects acted upon, and |
| 504 | recipients of the action |
| 505 | - Best intentions fail when executed incorrectly or addressed |
| 506 | to the wrong recipient |
| 507 | - Thus cannot judge charity by actor alone |
| 508 | - Saintly charity works in a perfect world |
| 509 | - Excessive in the World That Is |
| 510 | - Evil takes advantage of charity |
| 511 | - However, the world would be far worse without charitable |
| 512 | people |
| 513 | - Treating others charitably inspires others to become |
| 514 | better |
| 515 | - Exposure to an excessively charitable person softens a |
| 516 | person |
| 517 | - Without this type all would lie in spiritual stagnation |
| 518 | - Therefore even excessive charity has value |
| 519 | - Force destroys enemies |
| 520 | - Prudence at best resists enemies |
| 521 | - Non-resistance / Charity turns enemies into friends |
| 522 | - Though excessive, the saint makes the world a better place |
| 523 | - Compare to Utopianists and Anarchists |
| 524 | - Ascetecism |
| 525 | - Virtue most prone to excess |
| 526 | - It seems at first those wo are excessively ascetic are still |
| 527 | inwardly attached to the world |
| 528 | - If one were truly liberated he would not need excessive |
| 529 | moritification |
| 530 | - Different view: Ascetic sees wrongs in the world, and rather |
| 531 | than ignore them he conquers them internally |
| 532 | - One who does not fear Death seems strong |
| 533 | - Ascetecism is a profounder way of handling excistence than |
| 534 | simple optimistic naturalism |
| 535 | - In the modern time, people should throw away useless |
| 536 | asceticism and embrace useful aspects |
| 537 | - Attributes of early 20th century life and weakened churching |
| 538 | breed weaker character |
| 539 | - Militarism used as a subtitute for religious ascetecism |
| 540 | - Poor subtitute |
| 541 | - Speaks to the base and brutish aspects of human nature |
| 542 | - Ascetic poverty much superior to militarism/war |
| 543 | - WJ believes it **must** be embraced to fight evils of the |
| 544 | time [quote page 319-320] |
| 545 | - Desire to gain wealth breeds cowardice and corruption |
| 546 | - Wealthy man enslaved to riches |
| 547 | - Poor man lacks chains |
| 548 | - Single attributes of saintliness are found in the non-religious |
| 549 | - Combination of all forms is religious in nature |
| 550 | - Flows from sense of divine order |
| 551 | - Saintly person palces happiness internally rather than deriving |
| 552 | from comfort |
| 553 | - Saintly attributes mixed with narrow mind results in terrible |
| 554 | excessive forms |
| 555 | - We should not, however, place blame for narrow mindedness |
| 556 | entirely on the individual |
| 557 | - Essentials vs Accidents of saintliness |
| 558 | - Dislike of Saintly character |
| 559 | - Man traditionally worships strong leaders |
| 560 | - Saints are weak and passive |
| 561 | - Male vs Female nature [think Yin vs Yang] |
| 562 | - Many suppose there is one ideal type of character |
| 563 | - Empiricism rejects this as foolish |
| 564 | - On the one hande the saintly character is better than the |
| 565 | strongman becaue he is adapted to life in a perfect society |
| 566 | - On the other in the real world he would be ill adapted |
| 567 | - Mixture of the two characters useful [think Nietzsche's |
| 568 | uebermensch or Taoist] |
| 569 | - Saintly character has real value |