ABSTRACT
William James offered a crucial contribution to the empirical analysis of the religious phenomenon. James viewed religious belief as a path that went beyond simple evidence, as a genuine and strong will to believe so that even an indecisive stance as far as believing was concerned revealed a negative attitude toward belief itself. James was attracted by the varieties of religious forms, which included both mystic figures and simple believers at the same time. He held to a pluralistic rather than a monistic approach. James derived from E. D. Starbuck the importance of empirical data concerning the growth of the religious consciousness and conversion during adolescence. James valued Starbuck's use of the questionnaire. However, in his own research James preferred to resort to biographical and autobiographical data, which he called the "human document," because it offered many illuminating instances on the meaning of existence.
