A Reflection on William Jame's Ideals in the Light of Reviewing Psychology of Religion in William Jame's View

Psychology of religion, an interdisciplinary field that deals with both psychologyand religious studies, is a new knowledge that explains and describes religiousexperiences, insights, and behaviors from a psychological point of view. Thisknowledge goes back to 19th century and has been established in Anglo-American, German and French Traditions. The major figure of American tradition – that isbased on experientialism and application of objective samples and items andstatistical descriptions – is William James, the celebrated functionalist andpragmatist philosopher and psychologist, who analyses religious status from anexperiential and psychological point of view. While maintaining the decisiveassessment of thought or experience via calculation of their outcome and rate ofbenefit in life, he emphasizes two criteria as the most prominent and confidentresearch tools: adaptation to true postulates and principles, as well as relying on thesense of intuition. Dr. Masoud Azarbaijain’s precious book, Psychology of Religion inWilliam James’ View, introduces this influential American thinker. Whileintroducing some principles of the psychology of religion and James’ ideas, thisarticle tries to review and criticize this book.