ABSTRACT
William James (1842–1910) and Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973) were personalists, empiricists of a radical type, and psychological explorers into religious experience. Deep similarities to their approaches suggest more than a family resemblance, which might be shared by two philosophers favoring voluntarism over rationalism. They both sketched out an existential argument, or an apology, for faith in God, by proceeding from the exercise of personal belief. Only a person’s vital experience legitimates one’s belief in God’s presence within one’s own life. Neither philosopher would ask anyone for convictions about matters beyond the reach of possible experience, especially matters so transformative for one’s innermost character. That self-transformation, occurring at an ethical level, supplies the sure evidence and the fair test for an adequate idea of God.
