Since all facts are particular facts (522) ... the practical needs and experiences of religion seem to me sufficiently met by the belief that beyond each man and in a fashion continuous with him there exists a larger power which is friendly to him and to his ideals. All that the facts require is that the power should be both other and larger than our conscious selves. Anything larger will do, if only it be large enough to trust for the next step. It need not be infinite, it need not be solitary. (525)
To process the quietly explosive implications of William James' "piecemeal supernaturalism," the Varieties class (well, the students who could make it) today pulled out guitar and watercolors. I provided tea.
We have one more session, next week, to come to a more academic conclusion of our explorations, but it was nice to extend our textual discussions by articulating the ways the stuff of Varieties speaks to us more personally. (Several of us tried to make visual sense of the claim that In the religion of the twice-born, ... the world is a double-storied mystery, 166) It was nice to see the friendships forged in the class, too!
