The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human NatureJames, William
ReligionComparative
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature
James, William
Conversion; Experience (Religion); Philosophy and religion; Psychology, Religious; Religion
The inhibition of instinctive repugnance is proved not only by the showing
of love to enemies, but by the showing of it to any one who is personally
loathsome. In the annals of saintliness we find a curious mixture of
motives impelling in this direction. Asceticism plays its part; and along
with charity pure and simple, we find humility or the desire to disclaim
distinction and to grovel on the common level before God. Certainly all
three principles were at work when Francis of Assisi and Ignatius Loyola
exchanged their garments with those of filthy beggars. All three are at
work when religious persons consecrate their lives to the care of leprosy
or other peculiarly unpleasant diseases. The nursing of the sick is a
function to which the religious seem strongly drawn, even apart from the
fact that church traditions set that way. But in the annals of this sort
of charity we find fantastic excesses of devotion recorded which are only
explicable by the frenzy of self‐immolation simultaneously aroused.
Francis of Assisi kisses his lepers; Margaret Mary Alacoque, Francis
Xavier, St. John of God, and others are said to have cleansed the sores
and ulcers of their patients with their respective tongues; and the lives
of such saints as Elizabeth of Hungary and Madame de Chantal are full of a
sort of reveling in hospital purulence, disagreeable to read of, and which
makes us admire and shudder at the same time.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
So much for the human love aroused by the faith‐state. Let me next speak
of the Equanimity, Resignation, Fortitude, and Patience which it brings.
“A paradise of inward tranquillity” seems to be faith’s usual result; and
it is easy, even without being religious one’s self, to understand this. A
moment back, in treating of the sense of God’s presence, I spoke of the
unaccountable feeling of safety which one may then have. And, indeed, how
can it possibly fail to steady the nerves, to cool the fever, and appease
the fret, if one be sensibly conscious that, no matter what one’s
difficulties for the moment may appear to be, one’s life as a whole is in
the keeping of a power whom one can absolutely trust? In deeply religious
men the abandonment of self to this power is passionate. Whoever not only
says, but _feels_, “God’s will be done,” is mailed against every weakness;
and the whole historic array of martyrs, missionaries, and religious
reformers is there to prove the tranquil‐mindedness, under naturally
agitating or distressing circumstances, which self‐surrender brings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account