ABSTRACT
James gives two accounts of the religious life, both of which lead to a transformation of self, a strenuous life, and a belief in an unseen order and an attempt to adjust ourselves to it. The first, presented in The Principles of Psychology and “The Will to Believe”, is a religion of effort, a reflexive, incremental, and continual reworking of habits and desires in the light of ideals. The second, in The Varieties of Religious Experience, is a religion of surrender that becomes possible when exertion and volition break down, and that releases new energy and power.
There are instructive similarities between James’s and Friedrich Nietzsche’s accounts of religion and morality, though their styles and methods of inquiry are very different. James in Varieties and Nietzsche in On the Genealogy of Morals both take seriously and analyze concepts of sin, the divided self, conversion or new birth, and its fruits. Their accounts differ importantly, with James focusing on individual psychology and Nietzsche on a more dynamic mix including social and historical forces. Pragmatism might profit from some aspects of Nietzsche’s methods of inquiry and explanation.
