{"id":1999,"date":"2026-01-01T15:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/editionsdupleix.com\/?post_type=product&p=1999"},"modified":"2026-01-01T15:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T14:43:09","slug":"william-james-the-varieties-of-religious-experience","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/editionsdupleix.com\/en\/product\/william-james-the-varieties-of-religious-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Faith Feels Like: William James and the Inner Life of Belief<\/strong><\/h1>\n

What if religion were not a doctrine to be defended, nor a superstition to be debunked, but a human experience to be understood?<\/p>\n

In The Varieties of Religious Experience<\/em>, William James\u2014philosopher, psychologist, and master of intellectual audacity\u2014offers one of the most original inquiries into faith ever written. Turning away from churches, creeds, and theological systems, James listens instead to voices rarely granted authority: converts in crisis, mystics in rapture, saints in discipline, and souls haunted by despair. His subject is not religion as an institution, but religion as it is lived\u2014from the inside.<\/p>\n

James\u2019s originality lies in a simple yet radical refusal. He refuses to judge faith by its origins\u2014by nerves, pathologies, or historical causes\u2014and insists instead on judging it by its consequences. Does a belief enlarge life or constrict it? Does it generate courage, charity, and coherence, or exhaustion and fear? In asking these questions, James dismantles both dogmatic theology and reductive skepticism, replacing them with a pragmatic, humane standard: the fruits of experience.<\/p>\n

Along the way, he draws an unforgettable portrait of two contrasting religious temperaments\u2014the serene optimism of the \u201chealthy-minded\u201d and the hard-won redemption of the \u201csick soul.\u201d Rather than choosing between them, James allows both to stand, revealing faith as plural, unfinished, and deeply shaped by human temperament.<\/p>\n

Neither an apology for religion nor an argument against it, The Varieties of Religious Experience<\/em> remains a daring experiment in intellectual honesty. It invites readers not to believe, nor to disbelieve, but to look closely\u2014to see what faith does to human lives, and why that question still matters.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A landmark inquiry that asks not whether faith is true, but what it does to the human soul.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":2000,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[1097,51,1157],"product_tag":[2705,2703,2704,2699,2702,2700,2701,2706,2698,1962],"class_list":["post-1999","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","product_cat-philosophie-de-la-religion","product_cat-psychologie","product_cat-religion","product_tag-conversion","product_tag-faith-and-belief","product_tag-mysticism","product_tag-philosophy-of-religion","product_tag-pragmatism","product_tag-psychology-of-religion","product_tag-religious-experience","product_tag-religious-temperaments","product_tag-the-varieties-of-religious-experience","product_tag-william-james","desktop-align-left","tablet-align-left","mobile-align-left","first","instock","downloadable","taxable","shipping-taxable","purchasable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"\nWilliam James, The Varieties of Religious Experience - 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