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CHAPTER II
THE PRAGMATIC APPROACH
FORMULATION OF THE POSITION
The General Nature of Religious Pragmatism
The next alternative of rational empiricism to engage our attention
is religious pragmatism. Such a position holds that
while the existence of the Divine Reality or God may not admit
proof on purely theoretical or speculative grounds, this Reality
may nevertheless be asserted to exist on valuational grounds, or
in terms of the practical effect of theistic belief in human experience.
In the context of this view, then, theism is preferable
to naturalism or agnosticism because it makes a greater appeal
to all the energies of our active nature; it is better, in the end, to
risk chance of error than loss of truth, especially when that truth
serves, as does belief in God, to enrich and ennoble human life.
By far the most brilliant exponent of this general position
was William James, whose views have been subjected to constant
restatement since the time they were most clearly formulated
in The Will to Believe. But within the context of
Christianity the great proponent of religious pragmatism was A.
J. Balfour, whose influence, even on the thinking of James, was
by no means inconsequential. And since our interest, in this