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I like this book but I don't think it's a good fit for what the OP is looking for. James is interested in the religious experiences that individuals have, and w

I like this book but I don't think it's a good fit for what the OP is looking for. James is interested in the religious experiences that individuals have, and writes from a Protestant Christian point of view. It doesn't have much to say about the history or evolution of religion as a general global phenomenon.

FrustratedMonky 3y ago
I guess I took the word evolution to mean he was interested in how religions develop at all, and maybe James has some insight by showing how the human animal has similar religious beliefs around the world. Maybe the reason humans develop religion, is because they all have a neural network that provides a similar 'religious experience'.
- FrustratedMonky 3y ago
  Though, James is old. So I would also like a more recent book on this line of thought.
- hello_computer 3y ago
  William James was a Theosophist (no religion higher than truth). Theosophy is another mystery school, like Masonry which preceded it (look into Leadbeater & Olcott, Blavatsky's handlers), and like Anthroposophy, which splintered from it in-turn. These schools seem to have been undertaking the syncretization of all world religions known at the time. Immediately after the fall of the Knights Templar, we get the Masons--mixing the Abrahamic with the Egyptian and Mithraic. Then, as the Hindu and Buddhist doctrines made their ways into western consciousness in the 19th c., these also had to be retconned into the mix, ergo Theosophy. So, of course James would be one to write about such things, but he was standing on the shoulders of giants; a disclosure of received wisdom more than personal insight. And if you are interested in such things, the more recent mystery schools--Theosophy (Blavatsky), Anthroposophy (Steiner), Perennialism (Guenon), Esalen (Huxley, "The Perennial Philosophy")--are all good places to start.

FrustratedMonky 3y ago

I guess I took the word evolution to mean he was interested in how religions develop at all, and maybe James has some insight by showing how the human animal has similar religious beliefs around the world. Maybe the reason humans develop religion, is because they all have a neural network that provides a similar 'religious experience'.

FrustratedMonky 3y ago
Though, James is old. So I would also like a more recent book on this line of thought.
hello_computer 3y ago
William James was a Theosophist (no religion higher than truth). Theosophy is another mystery school, like Masonry which preceded it (look into Leadbeater & Olcott, Blavatsky's handlers), and like Anthroposophy, which splintered from it in-turn. These schools seem to have been undertaking the syncretization of all world religions known at the time. Immediately after the fall of the Knights Templar, we get the Masons--mixing the Abrahamic with the Egyptian and Mithraic. Then, as the Hindu and Buddhist doctrines made their ways into western consciousness in the 19th c., these also had to be retconned into the mix, ergo Theosophy. So, of course James would be one to write about such things, but he was standing on the shoulders of giants; a disclosure of received wisdom more than personal insight. And if you are interested in such things, the more recent mystery schools--Theosophy (Blavatsky), Anthroposophy (Steiner), Perennialism (Guenon), Esalen (Huxley, "The Perennial Philosophy")--are all good places to start.