CONTENTS
LECTURE I
RELIGION AND NEUROLOGY
Introduction: the course is not anthropological,
but deals with
personal documents— Questions of fact and
questions of value—
In point of fact, the religious are often neurotic—
Criticism of
medical materialism, which condemns religion on that
account—
Theory that religion has a sexual origin refuted—
All states of
mind are neurally conditioned— Their significance
must be tested
not by their origin but by the value of their fruits—
Three
criteria of value; origin useless as a criterion—
Advantages of
the psychopathic temperament when a superior intellect
goes with
it— especially for the religious life.
LECTURE II
CIRCUMSCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC
Futility of simple definitions of religion—
No one specific
“religious sentiment”— Institutional
and personal religion— We
confine ourselves to the personal branch—
Definition of religion
for the purpose of these lectures— Meaning
of the term
“divine”— The divine is what
prompts SOLEMN reactions—
Impossible to make our definitions sharp—
We must study the more
extreme cases— Two ways of accepting the
universe— Religion is
more enthusiastic than philosophy— Its
characteristic is
enthusiasm in solemn emotion— Its ability
to overcome
unhappiness— Need of such a faculty from
the biological point of
view.
LECTURE III
THE REALITY OF THE UNSEEN
Percepts versus abstract concepts— Influence
of the latter on
belief— Kant’s theological Ideas—
We have a sense of reality
other than that given by the special senses—
Examples of “sense
of presence”— The feeling of unreality—
Sense of a divine
presence: examples— Mystical experiences:
examples— Other cases
of sense of God’s presence— Convincingness
of unreasoned
experience— Inferiority of rationalism
in establishing belief—
Either enthusiasm or solemnity may preponderate in
the religious
attitude of individuals.
LECTURES IV AND V
THE RELIGION OF HEALTHY—MINDEDNESS
Happiness is man’s chief concern—
“Once-born” and “twice-born”
characters— Walt Whitman— Mixed
nature of Greek feeling—
Systematic healthy-mindedness— Its reasonableness—
Liberal
Christianity shows it— Optimism as encouraged
by Popular
Science— The “Mind-cure” movement—
Its creed— Cases— Its
doctrine of evil— Its analogy to Lutheran
theology— Salvation
by relaxation— Its methods: suggestion—
meditation—
“recollection”— verification—
Diversity of possible schemes of
adaptation to the universe— APPENDIX:
TWO mind-cure cases.
LECTURES VI AND VII
THE SICK SOUL
Healthy-mindedness and repentance— Essential
pluralism of the
healthy-minded philosophy— Morbid-mindedness:
its two
degrees—The pain-threshold varies in individuals—
Insecurity of
natural goods— Failure, or vain success
of every life—
Pessimism of all pure naturalism— Hopelessness
of Greek and
Roman view— Pathological unhappiness—
“Anhedonia”— Querulous
melancholy— Vital zest is a pure gift—
Loss of it makes
physical world look different— Tolstoy—
Bunyan— Alline—
Morbid fear— Such cases need a supernatural
religion for
relief— Antagonism of healthy-mindedness
and morbidness— The
problem of evil cannot be escaped.
LECTURE VIII
THE DIVIDED SELF, AND THE PROCESS OF ITS UNIFICATION
Heterogeneous personality—Character gradually
attains
unity—Examples of divided self—The
unity attained need not be
religious—“Counter conversion”
cases—Other cases—Gradual and
sudden unification—Tolstoy’s recovery—Bunyan’s.
LECTURE IX
CONVERSION
Case of Stephen Bradley—The psychology
of character-changes—
Emotional excitements make new centres of personal
energy—
Schematic ways of representing this— Starbuck
likens conversion
to normal moral ripening— Leuba’s
ideas— Seemingly
unconvertible persons— Two types of conversion—
Subconscious
incubation of motives— Self-surrender—
Its importance in
religious history— Cases.
LECTURE X
CONVERSION—concluded
Cases of sudden conversion— Is suddenness
essential?— No, it
depends on psychological idiosyncrasy—
Proved existence of
transmarginal, or subliminal, consciousness—
“Automatisms”—
Instantaneous conversions seem due to the possession
of an active
subconscious self by the subject— The value
of conversion
depends not on the process, but on the fruits—
These are not
superior in sudden conversion— Professor
Coe’s views—
Sanctification as a result— Our psychological
account does not
exclude direct presence of the Deity— Sense
of higher control—
Relations of the emotional “faith-state”
to intellectual
beliefs— Leuba quoted— Characteristics
of the faith-state:
sense of truth; the world appears new—
Sensory and motor
automatisms— Permanency of conversions.
LECTURES XI, XII, AND XIII
SAINTLINESS
Sainte-Beuve on the State of Grace— Types
of character as due to
the balance of impulses and inhibitions—
Sovereign excitements—
Irascibility— Effects of higher excitement
in general— The
saintly life is ruled by spiritual excitement—
This may annul
sensual impulses permanently— Probable
subconscious influences
involved— Mechanical scheme for representing
permanent
alteration in character— Characteristics
of saintliness— Sense
of reality of a higher power— Peace of
mind, charity—
Equanimity, fortitude, etc.— Connection
of this with
relaxation— Purity of life—
Asceticism— Obedience— Poverty—
The sentiments of democracy and of humanity—
General effects of
higher excitements.
LECTURES XIV AND XV
THE VALUE OF SAINTLINESS
It must be tested by the human value of its fruits—
The reality
of the God must, however, also be judged—
“Unfit” religions get
eliminated by “experience”—
Empiricism is not skepticism—
Individual and tribal religion— Loneliness
of religious
originators— Corruption follows success—
Extravagances—
Excessive devoutness, as fanaticism— As
theopathic absorption—
Excessive purity— Excessive charity—
The perfect man is adapted
only to the perfect environment— Saints
are leavens— Excesses
of asceticism—— Asceticism symbolically
stands for the heroic
life— Militarism and voluntary poverty
as possible equivalents—
Pros and cons of the saintly character—
Saints versus “strong”
men— Their social function must be considered—
Abstractly the
saint is the highest type, but in the present environment
it may
fail, so we make ourselves saints at our peril—
The question of
theological truth.
LECTURES XVI AND XVII
MYSTICISM
Mysticism defined— Four marks of mystic
states— They form a
distinct region of consciousness— Examples
of their lower
grades— Mysticism and alcohol—
“The anaesthetic revelation”—
Religious mysticism— Aspects of Nature—
Consciousness of God—
“Cosmic consciousness”— Yoga—
Buddhistic mysticism— Sufism—
Christian mystics— Their sense of revelation—
Tonic effects of
mystic states— They describe by negatives—
Sense of union with
the Absolute— Mysticism and music—
Three conclusions— (1)
Mystical states carry authority for him who has them—
(2) But
for no one else— (3) Nevertheless, they
break down the exclusive
authority of rationalistic states— They
strengthen monistic and
optimistic hypotheses.
LECTURE XVIII
PHILOSOPHY
Primacy of feeling in religion, philosophy being
a secondary
function— Intellectualism professes to
escape objective
standards in her theological constructions—
“Dogmatic
theology”— Criticism of its account
of God’s attributes—
“Pragmatism” as a test of the value of
conceptions— God’s
metaphysical attributes have no practical significance—
His
moral attributes are proved by bad arguments; collapse
of
systematic theology— Does transcendental
idealism fare better?
Its principles— Quotations from John Caird—
They are good as
restatements of religious experience, but uncoercive
as reasoned
proof— What philosophy CAN do for religion
by transforming
herself into “science of religions.”
LECTURE XIX
OTHER CHARACTERISTICS
Aesthetic elements in religion—Contrast
of Catholicism and
Protestantism— Sacrifice and Confession—
Prayer— Religion
holds that spiritual work is really effected in prayer—
Three
degrees of opinion as to what is effected—
First degree—
Second degree— Third degree—
Automatisms, their frequency
among religious leaders— Jewish cases—
Mohammed— Joseph
Smith— Religion and the subconscious region
in general.
LECTURE XX
CONCLUSIONS
Summary of religious characteristics—
Men’s religions need not
be identical— “The science of religions”
can only suggest, not
proclaims a religious creed— Is religion
a “survival” of
primitive thought?— Modern science rules
out the concept of
personality— Anthropomorphism and belief
in the personal
characterized pre-scientific thought— Personal
forces are real,
in spite of this— Scientific objects are
abstractions, only
individualized experiences are concrete—
Religion holds by the
concrete— Primarily religion is a biological
reaction— Its
simplest terms are an uneasiness and a deliverance;
description
of the deliverance— Question of the reality
of the higher
power— The author’s hypotheses:
1. The subconscious self as
intermediating between nature and the higher region—
2. The
higher region, or “God”— 3.
He produces real effects in nature.
POSTSCRIPT
Philosophic position of the present work defined
as piecemeal
supernaturalism— Criticism of universalistic
supernaturalism—
Different principles must occasion differences in
fact— What
differences in fact can God’s existence occasion?—
The question
of immortality— Question of God’s
uniqueness and infinity:
religious experience does not settle this question
in the
affirmative— The pluralistic hypothesis
is more conformed to
common sense.
