William James: His Humanism and Philosophy of Religion

Humanism is one of the key concepts of the history of thought. It has been employed for different purposes in different eras. There are various types of it, ranging from the rhetorical humanism of Sophists to the Christian humanism of the middle ages, and from literary humanism of the Renaissance to the humanism of Comte. In other words, there is no monolithic humanism. One of the problems encountered within this diversity of approaches is the relationship between humanism and religion. Some humanistic interpretations foreground an anti-religious approach. Is it necessary to regard humanism as anti-religious? James’s humanism provides important data to answer this question. His humanism, at one end of which there is a radical empiricist epistemology while at the other end there lies an anti-theistic paradigm, does not exclude religious belief. Rather, it both carefully preserves the practically productive aspects of religion and develops a philosophy of religion that puts human being in the center. Several problems of classical philosophy of religion, particularly the existence of God, his relationship with the universe, the problem of evil and religious experience, are handled with a humanistic approach by James. And this study examines James’s answers to those problems of philosophy of religion within the framework of his genuine humanism.