The Varieties of Religious Experience

Excerpt

Introduction:  the course is not anthropological, but deals with
personal documents—­ Questions of fact and questions of value—­ In
point of fact, the religious are often neurotic—­ Criticism of medical
materialism, which condemns religion on that account—­ Theory that
religion has a sexual origin refuted—­ All states of mind are neurally
conditioned—­ Their significance must be tested not by their origin but
by the value of their fruits—­ Three criteria of value; origin useless
as a criterion—­ Advantages of the psychopathic temperament when a
superior intellect goes with it—­especially for the religious life.