A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins.

  • Mary Whiton Calkins
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A first book in psychology / by Mary Whiton Calkins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    397/446 page 379
    The Religious Consciousness § i. The scientific study of personal relations forms the most im¬ portant problem of what Professor Stern calls ‘ psychography, ’ the study of individual selves. In the effort to coordinate such studies, the Institutjiir angewandte Psychologie has appointed a special com¬ mission (cf. Zeitschrift jiir angewandte Psychologie, III., Heft. 3). § 2. Most of the current conceptions of religion are defective for one of two reasons: (1) Some of them are so wide that they do not serve to distinguish religion from other forms of immateri- alism. So, when Wundt says, “ All ideas and feelings are religious which refer to an ideal existence,” an existence which fully corre¬ sponds to the wishes and requirements of the human mind,* he does not sufficiently distinguish religion from personal desire or from moral striving. (2) Over against these inclusive conceptions are those which unduly narrow the conception of religion. Thus, Schleiermacher makes of religion an exclusively emotional ex¬ perience when he defines it as “a feeling of absolute dependence upon God.” f And, on the other hand, Herbert Spencer confuses theology with religion, that is, philosophy with experience, when he conceives religion as “ the recognition of a mystery pressing for interpretation.” % In opposition to these one-sided views: Professor Leuba’s words deserve quotation; § Religion, he says, is “com¬ pounded of will, thought, and feeling, bearing to each other the relation which belongs to them in every department of life.” * “Ethics,” Eng. tr., Vol. I., p. 59. For Wundt’s illuminating treatment of the sources and beginnings of religion, cf. Volkerpsychologie, f “Reden liber Religion,” 4te Aufh, p. 42. f “First Principles,” Part I., Section 13, p. 44 (4th edition). § “The Psychological Nature of Religion,” American Journal of Theology, January, 1907, p. 80, and “The Psychological Nature and Origin of Religion,” 1909, p. 8. (Note the citations of the footnotes.)
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