William James’in Gifford Konferansları ve The Varieties of Religious Experience İsimli Eserinin Yankıları Üzerine Bir Analiz
Marife Dini Araştırmalar Dergisi September 8, 2019 Ömer Faruk Erdem
William James received the first official invitation to deliver the Gifford Lectures in 1898. Originally planned as two series—descriptive and metaphysical—the lectures were presented as a single series because the descriptive part unexpectedly lengthened, postponing the metaphysical part. The first series began in Edinburgh on 16 May 1901 and was published as a book in 1902 titled 'The Varieties of Religious Experience, a Study on Human Nature.' The book achieved serious success. James not only describes religious experiences but also justifies them, viewing them as inspired due to their extraordinary character, even when judged pathological by strict psychiatric criteria.