The Varieties of Religious Experience

Published in 1902 The Varieties of Religious Experience by a leading American philosopher and psychologist in the 19th century William James is based on lectures James gave on natural theology. James was the first person to offer a psychology course in the United States and he is often referred to as the Father of American Psychology. In 1901 William came to Britain. He had been invited to deliver a series of prestigious public lectures in Edinburgh. In them he attempted a daringly original intellectual project. For the first time here was a close-up examination of religion not as a body of beliefs but as an intimately personal experience. When the lectures were printed as The Varieties of Religious Experience they were an instant success. They laid the ground for a whole new area of study—the psychology of religion and influenced figures from the psychiatrist Carl Jung to the novelist Aldous Huxley.