The Varieties of Religious Experience — William James

p. 91The advance of liberalism, so-called, in Christianity, during the past fifty years, may fairly be called a victory, of healthy-mindedness within the church over the morbid- \ ness with which the old liell-fire theology was more liar- f moniously related. We have now whole congregations whose preachers, far from magnifying our consciousness of sin, seem devoted rather to making little of it.

They ignore, or even deny, eternal punishment, and insist on the dignity rather than on the~depravity of man.

They look at the continual preoccupation of the old-fashioned ^P /) fx^ Christian with the salvation of his soul as something ^•*'-''*^ sickly and reprehensible rather than admirable ; and a Q £ sanguine and ^ muscular ' attitude, which to our forefathers would have seemed purely heathen, has become (L-^ in their eyes an ideal element of Christian character. I am not asking whether or not they are right, I am only / pointing out the change.

The persons to whom I refer have still retained for the most part their nominal connection with Christianity, in spite of their discarding of its more pessimistic theological elements.

But in that ^ theory of evolution ' which, gathering momentum for a century, has within the past twenty-five years swept so rapidly over Europe and America, we see the ground laid for a new sort of religion of Nature, which has entirely displaced Christianity from the thought of a large part of our generation.

The idea of a universal evolution lends itself to a doctrine of general meliorism and progress which fits the religious needs of the healthy-minded so well that it seems almost as if it might have been created for their use. Accordingly we find ^ evolutionism ' interpreted thus optimistically and polite surface of life, and the broad, bawdy, and orgiastic — or msenadic — foundations, form a spectacle to which no habit reconciles me. R. L. Stevenson : Letters, ii. 355.

p. 92embraced as a substitute for the religion they were born in, by a multitude of our contemporaries who have either been trained scientifically, or been fond of reading popular science, and who had already begun to be inwardly dissatisfied with what seemed to them the harshness and irrationahty of the orthodox Christian scheme.

As examples are better than descriptions, I will quote a document received in answer to Professor Starbuck's circular of questions. The writer's state of mind may by courtesy be called a religion, for it is his reaction on the whole nature of things, it is systematic and reflective, and it loyally binds him to certain inner ideals.

I think you will recognize in him, coarse-meated and incapable of wounded spirit as he is, a sufficiently famihar contemporary type. Q. What does Religion mean to you f A. It means nothing ; and it seems, so far as I can observe, useless to others.

I am sixty-seven years of age and have resided in X. fifty years, and have been in business forty-five, consequently I have some little experience of life and men, and some women too, and I find that the mo,st religious and pious^, people are as a rule those most lacking in uprightness and mo- • rality. The men who do not go to church or have any religious convictions are the best.

Praying, singing of hymns, and ser- / monizing are pernicious — they teach us to rely on some supernatural power, when we ought to rely on ourselves. I ^eetotally disbelieve in a God. The God-idea was begotten in ignorance, fear, and a general lack of any knowledge of Nature.

If I were to die now, being in a healthy condition for my age, both mentally and physically, I would just as lief, yes, rather, die with a hearty enjoyment of music, sport, or any other rational pastime. | As a tiipepiece stops, we die — there being no immortality in/ either case. Q. What comes hefore your mind corresponding to the words God, Heaven, Angels, etc. ? A. Nothing whatever. I am a man without a religion. These words mean so much mythic bosh.

p. 93Q. Have you had any experiences which appeared providential f A. None whatever. There is no agency of the superintending kind. A little judicious observation as well as knowledge of scientific law will convince any one of this fact. Q. What things work most strongly on your emotions ? A. Lively songs and music ; Pinafore instead of an Oratorio.

I like Scott, Burns, Byron, Longfellow, especially Shakespeare, etc., etc. Of songs, the Star-spangled Banner, America, Marseillaise, and all moral and soul-stirring songs, but wishy« washy hymns are my detestation. I greatly enjoy nature, especially fine weather, and until within a few years used to walk Sundays into the country, twelve miles often, with no fatigue, and bicycle forty or fifty. I have dropped the bicycle.

I never go to church, but attend lectures when there are any good ones. All of my thoughts and cogitations have been of a healthy and cheerful kind, for instead of doubts and fears I see things as they are, for I endeavor to adjust myself to my environment. This I regard as the deepest law. Mankind is a progressive aiiimal. I am satisfied he will have made a great advance over his present status a thousand years hence. Q.

What is your notion of sin f A. It seems to me that sinjs^_ condition, a^ disease, inciden-\ tal to ma;a!s_jieyelQpnient not being yet advanced enough./ TVlorbidness over it increases the disease. We should think that a million of years hence equity, justice, and mental and physical good order will be so fixed and organized that no one will have any idea of evil or sin. Q. What is your temperament f A.

Nervous, active, wide-awake, mentally and physically. Sorry tlmt Nat.iire compels us to sleep at all. If we are in seatch of a broken and a contrite heart, clearly we need not look to this brother. ^is_contentment with the finite incases him like a lobster-shell and shields him from all morbid repining at his distance from the Infinite. WF^ave in Him an excellent example of the optimism which may be encouraged by popular science.