Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking

Dealing as it does with the ultimate questions of existence, religion serves as a fitting climax for Pragmatism.

James had previously written a major and well-received book on religion, Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), which he alludes to in this lecture. Through that book, James became known as a thinker who took religion and spirituality seriously and considered faith to be as real and authentic as other forms of human experience. In this lecture, James aims to reconcile pragmatism with religious thought.

Pragmatism is obliged to respect any idea that proves useful for life. This applies also to the ideas propounded by various religions. Thus, James concedes that the idea of God as Absolute is a useful idea because it has served as the basis of the active faith of many people throughout history.

James argues that one can take religious ideas either in a monistic or a pluralistic way. To illustrate his point, he discusses at length Walt Whitman’s poem “To You.” The poem is a comforting hymn to the glory of the reader, whom Whitman is addressing. Read monistically, the poem is an invitation to rejoice in one’s own innate being: “Look back, lie back, on your true principle of being!” (106).