The Varieties of Religious Experience

First published in 1903, William James's Varieties of Religious Experience remains a crucial text in American intellectual history and one of the most widely read books on religion and religious experience. In this abridged edition, Robert H. Abzug offers James's key insights in a concise and accessible format. Abzug's introduction offers background on James and situates his work within the context of late nineteenth and early twentieth century intellectual currents, including psychology and philosophy. In addition, it shows how James sought to reconcile religion and science by psychologically interpreting the experience of religious states of mind while validating what he called "the reality of the unseen." A chronology, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography further enrich students' understanding.

Robert H. Abzug (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley) is Professor of History and American Studies, Audre and Bernard Rapoport Regents Chair of Jewish Studies, and founding director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His research and teaching interests focus on American cultural history, history of psychology and religion, and the history of the Holocaust. His major publications include Cosmos Crumbling: American Reform and the Religious Imagination; Inside the Vicious Heart: Americans and the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps; and Passionate Liberator: Theodore Dwight Weld and the Dilemma of Reform.