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William James and the religious character of the sick soul
pp. 83-101
Abstract
The scholarly attention lavished on William James' case study in the "Sick Soul" lecture in The Varieties of Religious Experience of a man disturbed by the vision of an epileptic patient has generally not approached this case as a religious experience. To deepen our understanding of religious experience, I show that this case study can be understood as religious using elements of the theory of religion expounded throughout James' text. I argue that it can be understood as a stage in the process of conversion James lays out. The omission of a subsequent stage highlights James' reasons for rejecting healthy-mindedness as a philosophically adequate perspective and illustrates his claim that the strivings of the conscious mind can stunt the conversion process. Drawing on other philosophical, psychological, and literary texts, I argue that the content of the vision James describes points to solitude as a source of religious disquiet.
Publication details
Published in:
(2014) Human Studies 37 (1).
Pages: 83-101
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DOI: 10.1007/s10746-013-9302-0
Full citation:
López Roger G. (2014) „William James and the religious character of the sick soul“. Human Studies 37 (1), 83–101.


