The Varieties of Religious Experience - Penn State University

William Jamesyour persuasion that if a God exist he must be a more cosmic andtragic personage than that Being.The truth is that in the metaphysical and religious sphere, articulatereasons are cogent for us only when our inarticulate feelings of realityhave already been impressed in favor of the same conclusion. Then,indeed, our intuitions and our reason work together, and great worldrulingsystems, like that of the Buddhist or of the Catholic philosophy,may grow up. Our impulsive belief is here always what sets upthe original body of truth, and our articulately verbalized philosophyis but its showy translation into formulas. The unreasoned and immediateassurance is the deep thing in us, the reasoned argument isbut a surface exhibition. Instinct leads, intelligence does but follow. Ifa person feels the presence of a living God after the fashion shown bymy quotations, your critical arguments, be they never so superior,will vainly set themselves to change his faith.Please observe, however, that I do not yet say that it is better thatthe subconscious and non-rational should thus hold primacy in thereligious realm. I confine myself to simply pointing out that theydo so hold it as a matter of fact.So much for our sense of the reality of the religious objects. Letme now say a brief word more about the attitudes they characteristicallyawaken.We have already agreed that they are solemn; and we have seenreason to think that the most distinctive of them is the sort of joywhich may result in extreme cases from absolute self-surrender. Thesense of the kind of object to which the surrender is made has muchto do with determining the precise complexion of the joy; and thewhole phenomenon is more complex than any simple formula allows.In the literature of the subject, sadness and gladness have eachbeen emphasized in turn. The ancient saying that the first maker ofthe Gods was fear receives voluminous corroboration from everyage of religious history; but none the less does religious history showthe part which joy has evermore tended to play. Sometimes the joyhas been primary; sometimes secondary, being the gladness of deliverancefrom the fear. This latter state of things, being the morecomplex, is also the more complete; and as we proceed, I think weshall have abundant reason for refusing to leave out either the sad-73