William James

James (we may now)

we may now lay it down as certain that in the distinctively religious sphere of experience, many persons posess the objects of their belief, not in the form of mere conceptions which their intellect accepts as true, but rather in the form of quasi sensible realities directly apprehended

James (rationalism insists)

rationalism insists that all our beliefs ought ultimately to find for themselves articulate grounds..

James (it always leads)

it always leads to a better understanding of a thing's signifcance to consider its exaggerations and perversions, its equivalents and substitutes

James (bent as)

bent as we are on studying religion's existential conditions, we cannot possibly ignore the pathological aspects of the subject

james (to interpret)

to interpret religion, one must in the end look at the immediate content of the religious consciousness

Schleiermacher (although it)

although it was impossible to distil any natural religion from all of the concrete manifestations, one could infer an experiential core that they all shared as expressions of homo religiosus

Davis (in freeing)

in freeing the bible from a theological tradition that elevated it above all other scriptures and Jesus above all other holy persons, he freed the religious imagination of his readers to read early christian literature in search of the jesus of history

Jay Martin (problematic)

problematic, complained critics, was James' apologetic assumption that the extreme manifestations of religious disease could be taken as emblematic of normal religious experience

Jonathan Edwards (the degree in)

the degree in which our experience is productive of practice shows the degree in which our experience is spiritual and divine

otto (james is debarred)

james is debarred by his empiricist and pragmatist standpoint from coming to a recognition of faculties of knowledge and potentialities of thought in the spirit itself,

Mark C. Taylor (the problem)

the problem with the term experience is that it resists definition by design

mark c taylor (many essential)

many essential elements of theological reflection are simply not amenable to empirical observation or testing

Mark c taylor (by the twentieth)

by the twentieth century it had become difficult for christian theologians to simply ignore the existence of non-christian traditions, much less to smugly assert christian superiority

mark c taylor (is there any)

is there any reason to assume that the reports of experiences by mystics are any more credible as phenomenological descriptions than those of alien abductees

ann taves (in the nineteenth)

in the nineteenth century, many modernizers advanced the idea that a certain kind of experience constituted the essence of religion and the common core of the world's religions

ann taves (coe found)

coe found that those for whom emotion was the predominant faculty, and those whose mental processes were melancholic or sanguine were likely to have dramatic conversion experiences.

anne taves (thinkers)

thinkers turned to the concept of religious experience as a source of theological authority at a time when claims based on other sources of authority - ecclesiastical, doctrinal and biblical - were increasingly subject to historical critique

lamberth (experience is)

experience is to reign supreme as the guarantor for philosophical conceptions

Lamberth (with the exception)

with the exception of the moral attributes of god (holiness, justice, love), james finds that rational theology's productions - such as establishing god's aseity, simplicity or immateriality - prove pragmatically meaningless

whittaker (religious teachings)

religious teachings, he says, are really overbeliefs, and their credibility depends on the electric connection which they make with our needs and sensibilities

Arnold's Aberglauben (these beliefs)

these beliefs originate as poetic expressions designed to convey some sense of the eternal not ourselves

whittaker (james viewed overbeliefs)

james viewed overbeliefs in thoroughly practical terms..

whittaker (their value)

their value has no relation to their truth or falsity,

whittaker (But the practical)

but the pracitcal benefits of holding certain religious beleifs do not have to be construed as direct evidence for their truth

whittaker (james wanted only to)

james wanted only to enliven the general possibility of religious beleif by defending them against the charge that they could only be blindly irrationally adopted.