The Varieties of Religious Experience

About the lecture

In this module, we introduce William James, and his classic 1902 text ‘The Varieties of Religious Experience’, focusing in particular on (i) James’ method of gathering the data of experience, drawing on Darwinian ideas about the varieties of species (ii) James’ 1902 Gifford Lectures, in which the accounts of these religious experience were published and (iii) James’ psychological account, and his philosophical analysis 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).