"Being the Gifford lectures on natural religion delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902."

Includes bibliographical references and index

Religion and neurology -- Circumscription of the topic -- The reality of the unseen -- The religion of healthy-mindedness -- The sick soul -- The divided self, and the process of its unification -- Conversion -- Saintliness -- The value of saintliness -- Mysticism -- Philosophy -- Other characteristics -- Conclusions -- Postscript

William James believed that individual religious experiences, rather than the precepts of organized religions, were the backbone of the world's religious life. His discussions of conversion, repentance, mysticism and saintliness, and his observations on actual, personal religious experiences -- all support this thesis. In his introduction, Martin E. Marty discusses how James' pluralistic view of religion led to his remarkable tolerance of extreme forms of religious behaviour, his challenging, highly original theories, and his welcome lack of pretension in all of his observations one the individual and the divine