Mr. William James on Religious Conversion,

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue LXIV, 13 September 1902, Page 3 (Supplement)

Mr. William James on Religious Conversion,

Mr. William^ James, the grcnt American psychologist, has written a book on "The Varieties of Religious Experience. " (Longmans and Co., 12s net.) hi it he asks:/ "What are the religious propensities, and what is their philosophic significance:" Mr. Jaincs does not deal with any oup sect, or even with any one re- J ligion ; ho deliberately puts both theology and ecHubitiMiJcism on onu aide, and conbulers only "1 ho feelings, acts, and ex- I penencos of individual men in their solitude so fur as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine." If wo look, lie says, on man's whole mental life as nl stands, the pint of it of which rationalism can give account is relatively superficial; and lie maintains that the general basin of all religious experience, is the fact ttiat man has a dual nature, and is connected with two spheres of thought — v shallower and a profoundor sphere — in either of which ho may learn to live move habitually. In thus attributing ilie phenomena of religious experience to the reality of a subconscious self, Mr. James in no way Keeks to shake the theory that such experience may prove a direct relation between God and man, it being from his point of view likely that "if there be higher spiritual agencies that can directly tquch us, the psychological condition of their doing so might be our possession of a subconscious region which alone could yield uccess to them." the most interesting chapter in the book, aud to our mind the key to the whole, is the one on conversion. Here Mr. James lays before his readers many pieces of religions biography belonging to the past and tho present. lies and Evangelicals, UnitariansrChristian Scientists, und even one or two Buddhj,sts, are made to offer their contributions to the subject, nnd he concludes that "under all discrepancies of creed there is a common nucleus to which all experiences bear testimony." It is, not easy to epitomise such close reasoning as Mr. Janice's — for his evidence and his arguments we must refer our readers to his oook, merely dealing here -with his conclusions. The contradictions Avitnin and without vs — the struggle- between our two natures and the conflicting facts of tho world—cause, he bi-iieves, the mental distress in which so many thinking men live, or have lived, at some period of their lives. Conversion he takes to mean some sort of unification of these conflicting elements — a'reconciliation not arising from reason, but from insight. Exactly what creed is adopted by such conveitsf is not a poii»t which interests Mr. James ; the fact which is for him of so much significance mj simply this, tint ttin.su 1 who experienced this reconciliation "did find something welling un in their inner consciousness by wheh their extreme sadness could bo overcome." That tnosu who have been in tho "iny3tical state' 1 of conversion find it absolutely authoritative and convincing is, Mr. Jamesconsiders, reasonable enough. They have no reasonable ground, however, for demanding that those outside this state should accept their revelations uncriticalIv ; but tho fact of tho commonness of their experience does establish a presumption timt the visible world is part of a more spiritual universe from which it draws its chief significance, and that "the conscious person is continuous with a wider self through which saving experiences may come,." The usual effect of such experience, whether it be sudden or gradual, is tho ''sense of the Jirewence of a higher and friendly Power," "the disapppurnnce of all fenr from uio'fl life, the quite indescribable and inexj licable feeling ! of an inner serenity." Ihis theory of tne subconscioui self whose triumph is conversion, whose conflict produces doubt, is, to our mind, intensely interesting and suggestive. Is it possible thiit this *elf knows, not the facts of creeds; but the fict at tho bottom of all creeds, its own relation to< Uodl May the doubt which expresses itself today in the restless study of history, science, and ethics in their theological bearings be in its essence nothing but an effort to rec»H"hnd realise something already known — a great mental effort aualagous to the small mental effort we make when wn search our minds for a lost name? If we have intuitions ot all, says Mr. James, "they come from a deeper level of our nature than the loquacious level which ratioiiulisni inhabits." "Such a theory is in no way opposed to CUristinnity. It would even explain ninny mystical ■ passages in the Hvw Testament. "Whither 1 go ye know, and the way ye know," said the Christ Who was returning to God. Thy Disciples immediately deniod this knowledge; yet the complete sense 'of security, both in regard to themselves and their Muster, which possessed them after H>i wns gone testified to the spiritual truth of His words. If there were not in the mind of man some hidden knowledge, some instinct that ho is ill tho lumds of a friendly Power could be po on through life ns cheerfully ns he does? Take away this sense of reliance, nnd wlint have we? Nothing in front of us but blank darkness, containing the possibility of tho greatest sufferinic, both mental and physical, for ourselves and those wo love — thee(e c( rtainty of parting, the probability of annihilation. Yet most men. even of those -who from reason or indifFerence have no assured faith, do not sco life in this light. Is it because they know by instinct that Arhich their reason refuses to confirm? Perhaps we have all at times vaguely desired to bo what is usually called "converted," that I is, we have envied those who are nblc to accept without cavil the whole body of • dogma declared necessary by any church. Yet if some higher Power could [ offer to destroy our judgment, and en-* j able us to believe what we think wo know is not true, the sacrifice would most likely nppenr to us in the light of a sin, and we should very probably refuse this illegitimate peace. ' But what if the esseuce of conversion ir outside theso declarations of churches, if they are merely tho joyful guesses of those who have realised the one "excellent ocrtaftity"? If to bo converted is "the attainment of an altogether ne-| level of spiritual vitality." surely such conversion every man must desire with his wholo heart, for, «s it has been truly said, "to recognise our own divinity nnd our intimnte relation to the Universal is to attach the belts of our machinery to the power-hou^e of the Universe." Most of ua in tho present day are occasionally torn between two theories of life— the theory which says that the hairs of our head nre nil numbered, nnd that nil the circumstances in which we find ourselves have a particular meaning for us ns individuals; and the theory which tenches us that we arc powerless in tho meshes of inexorable law, which will crush or spnro us ns the ense may be. law so ftirrencbing thnt it can control the stars, so minute timt it regulates thp quiverings of every blade of gross. The conscious self believes in the one, tho subconscious self in tin? other. Is there any possible unification of these two ideas? Not, we believe, within the grnsp of the liumnn renson, but perhnpt within tho bound* of spiritunl powibilitv. Do we iiot nIJ believe in both free-will nnd pretli'stimtion? Is truth, then, not one? Certainly; but that one is too large for ris to conceive of. nnd the pieces we nre nble. to grasp appenr to us to be many. But how does this triumph nf the uubrowciotttf seff oome about T There is, ncrordiitfif to Mr. James, "documentary evidence" that it comes in various ways — suddenly, us if by miracle ; gradually, ns if by nature. It comes nt all periods of life to person* of all opinions One of the commonest forerunuer.i of this triumph is a sense of utter wecrinees, of inca-

pacity to cany on the struggle any longer, a ceasing to care. "Our vmotional brain centres strike work, and wa relapse into temporary apathy. So long a tho egoistic worry of the sick .soul guards the door the. expannivo confidence of the soul of faith gains no entrance; but let the. former faint away, even for a moment, and the latter cun profit by the opportunity." Much a crisis may occur to individuals or to communities. For instance, at the tune, of the Reformation the weary upholders of the right of private judgment, luiviug reurhed what- Luther called a stalu of "godly desperation," found peace iv a new sense of knowledge and certainly which could not bu exactly defined in words, and which took expression Tii a crude perversion of the doctrino of tbe Atonement. Is it not possible that the Western World is once more on the eve of a great revival, whohe forerunners arc Hit 1 prophets of psychology, not of a new Kufurnmtion winch will create a- new church, but of a new inbreathing of the Spirit winch will revive the spiritual life of nil the churches — a time when men will pause in their hot pursuit of evidence, and read each in his own heart "the Word' which St. John realised to be God. — Spectator.