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The Varieties of Religious Experience







by William James













A Study in Human Nature

















To



E。P。G。



IN FILIAL GRATITUDE AND LOVE



















THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE







Lecture I







RELIGION AND NEUROLOGY







It is with no small amount of trepidation that I take my place



behind this desk; and face this learned audience。  To us



Americans; the experience of receiving instruction from the



living voice; as well as from the books; of European scholars; is



very familiar。  At my own University of Harvard; not a winter



passes without its harvest; large or small; of lectures from



Scottish; English; French; or German representatives of the



science or literature of their respective countries whom we have



either induced to cross the ocean to address us; or captured on



the wing as they were visiting our land。  It seems the natural



thing for us to listen whilst the Europeans talk。  The contrary



habit; of talking whilst the Europeans listen; we have not yet



acquired; and in him who first makes the adventure it begets a



certain sense of apology being due for so presumptuous an act。 



Particularly must this be the case on a soil as sacred to the



American imagination as that of Edinburgh。  The glories of the



philosophic chair of this university were deeply impressed on my



imagination in boyhood。  Professor Fraser's Essays in Philosophy;



then just published; was the first philosophic book I ever looked



into; and I well remember the awestruck feeling I received from



the account of Sir William Hamilton's classroom therein



contained。  Hamilton's own lectures were the first philosophic



writings I ever forced myself to study; and after that I was



immersed in Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown。  Such juvenile



emotions of reverence never get outgrown; and I confess that to



find my humble self promoted from my native wilderness to be



actually for the time an official here; and transmuted into a



colleague of these illustrious names; carries with it a sense of



dreamland quite as much as of reality。







But since I have received the honor of this appointment I have



felt that it would never do to decline。  The academic career also



has its heroic obligations; so I stand here without further



deprecatory words。  Let me say only this; that now that the



current; here and at Aberdeen; has begun to run from west to



east; I hope it may continue to do so。  As the years go by; I



hope that many of my countrymen may be asked to lecture in the



Scottish universities; changing places with Scotsmen lecturing in



the United States; I hope that our people may become in all these



higher matters even as one people; and that the peculiar



philosophic temperament; as well as the peculiar political



temperament; that goes with our English speech may more and more



pervade and influence the world。







As regards the manner in which I shall have to administer this



lectureship; I am neither a theologian; nor a scholar learned in



the history of religions; nor an anthropologist。  Psychology is



the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed。 



To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at



least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his



mental constitution。  It would seem; therefore; that; as a



psychologist; the natural thing for me would be to invite you to



a descriptive survey of those religious propensities。







If the inquiry be psychological; not religious institutions; but



rather religious feelings and religious impulses must be its



subject; and I must confine myself to those more developed



subjective phenomena recorded in literature produced by



articulate and fully self…conscious men; in works of piety and



autobiography。  Interesting as the origins and early stages of a



subject always are; yet when one seeks earnestly for its full



significance; one must always look to its more completely evolved



and perfect forms。  It follows from this that the documents that



will most concern us will be those of the men who were most



accomplished in the religious life and best able to give an



intelligible account of their ideas and motives。  These men; of



course; are either comparatively modern writers; or else such



earlier ones as have become religious classics。  The documents



humains which we shall find most instructive need not then be



sought for in the haunts of special eruditionthey lie along the



beaten highway; and this circumstance; which flows so naturally



from the character of our problem; suits admirably also your



lecturer's lack of special theological learning。 I may take



my citations; my sentences and paragraphs of personal confession;



from books that most of you at some time will have had already in



your hands; and yet this will be no detriment to the value of my



conclusions。  It is true that some more adventurous reader and



investigator; lecturing here in future; may unearth from the



shelves of libraries documents that will make a more delectable



and curious entertainment to listen to than mine。  Yet I doubt



whether he will necessarily; by his control of so much more



out…of…the…way material; get much closer to the essence of the



matter in hand。







The question; What are the religious propensities?  and the



question; What is their philosophic significance?  are two



entirely different orders of question from the logical point of



view; and; as a failure to recognize this fact distinctly may



breed confusion; I wish to insist upon the point a little before



we enter into the documents and materials to which I have



referred。







In recent books on logic; distinction is made between two orders



of inquiry concerning anything。  First; what is the nature of it?



how did it come about?  what is its constitution; origin; and



history?  And second; What is its importance; meaning; or



significance; now that it is once here? The answer to the one



question is given in an existential judgment or proposition。  The



answer to the other is a proposition of value; what the Germans



call a Werthurtheil; or what we may; if we like; denominate a



spiritual judgment。  Neither judgment can be deduced immediately



from the other。  They proceed from diverse intellectual



preoccupations; and the mind combines them only by making them



first separately; and then adding them together。







In the matter of religions it is particularly easy to distinguish



the two orders of question。  Every religious phenomenon has its



history and its derivation from natural antecedents。  What is



nowadays called the higher criticism of the Bible is only a study



of the Bible from this existential point of view; neglected too



much by the earlier church。  Under just what biographic



conditions did the sacred writers bring forth their various



contributions to the holy volume?  And what had they exactly in



their several individual minds; when they delivered their



utterances?  These are manifestly questions of historical fact;



and one does not see how the answer to them can decide offhand



the still further question: of what use should such a volume;



with its manner of coming into existence so defined; be to us as



a guide to life and a revelation?  To answer this other question



we must have already in our mind some sort of a general theory as



to what the peculiarities in a thing should be which give it



value for purposes of revelation; and this theory itself would be



what I just called a spiritual judgment。  Combining it with our



existential judgment; we might indeed deduce another spiritual



judgment as to the Bible's worth。  Thus if our theory of



revelation…value were to affirm that any book; to possess it;



must have been composed automatically or not by the free caprice



of the writer; or that it must exhibit no scientific and historic



errors and express no local or personal passions; the Bible would



probably fare ill at our hands。  But if; on the other hand; our



theory should allow that a book may well be a revelation in spite



of errors and passions and deliberate human composition; if only



it be a true record of the inner experiences of great…souled



persons wrestling with the crises of their fate; then the verdict



would be much more favorable。  You see that the existential facts



by themselves are insufficient for determining the value; 

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