The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

The Varieties of Religious Experienceonly practical resource. This question must confront us on a laterday. But provisionally, and as a mere matter of program and method,since the evil facts are as genuine parts of nature as the good ones,the philosophic presumption should be that they have some rationalsignificance, and that systematic healthy-mindedness, failing asit does to accord to sorrow, pain, and death any positive and activeattention whatever, is formally less complete than systems that tryat least to include these elements in their scope.The completest religions would therefore seem to be those in whichthe pessimistic elements are best developed. Buddhism, of course,and Christianity are the best known to us of these. They are essentiallyreligions of deliverance: the man must die to an unreal lifebefore he can be born into the real life. In my next lecture, I will tryto discuss some of the psychological conditions of this second birth.Fortunately from now onward we shall have to deal with more cheerfulsubjects than those which we have recently been dwelling on.152