William James - The Varieties of Religious Experience

About this Course

About the Course

In this course Jeremy Carrette (University of Kent) explores William James and religious experience. In the first module we introduce William James, and his classic 1902 text ‘The Varieties of Religious Experience’. After that, we explore some of the common characteristics of religious experience, and the structure of James’ account. In the third module we come to conversion and its effects, before moving on to a module on mysticism and mystical experience. In the fifth module we look at the genuineness of religious experience. Finally, we bring all of our knowledge together to evaluate William James’ account of religious experience.

About the Lecturer

Professor Jeremy Carrette is Professor of Philosophy, Religion and Culture at the University of Kent. He has published work on the French philosopher Michel Foucault, the American pragmatist William James, psychological theories of religious experience and led a research project on religious NGOs at the United Nations. His recent publications include Religion and Critical Psychology: Religious Experience in the Knowledge Economy (2007) and William James’s Hidden Religious Imagination: A Universe of Relations (2013).