The Varieties of Religious Experience Author:William James William James brought something entirely new to the study of religion - he approached his subject from the viewpoint of the philosopher and the experimental psychologist. — A physician by training, he used scientific knowledge to classify, compare and examine a fascinating variety of recorded religious experience. "He defined sexual, esthetic, eg... more »oistical, and other elements in religious faith with the firmness of a dissecting anatomist and the delicacy of a surgeon who wants to save, not kill." -Jacques Barzun« less