TY - JOUR AB - This essay argues that the American psychologist and philosopher William James should be viewed in the Lutheran Reformation’s tradition because this viewpoint offers the hermeneutical key to his philosophy of religion. Though James obviously didn’t ascribe to biblical authority, he expressed the following religious sensibilities made possible by Martin Luther and his contemporaries: 1) challenge of prevailing systems, 2) anti-rationalism, 3) being pro-religious experience and dynamic belief, 4) need for a personal, caring God, and also 5) a gospel of religious comfort. This essay asks, in one specific form, how religious concerns can hold steady over time but cause very different expressions of faith. AD - Concordia St. Louis AU - Zehnder, David J. DO - 10.5840/forphil20101523 KW - Faith; James, William; hermeneutics; Protestantism; religious experience LA - en M1 - 2 M3 - Article PY - 2010 RN - Bultmann, Rudolf. Glauben und Verstehen. Vol 4. Tübingen: Mohr, 1965. Bultmann, Rudolf. “Zum Problem der Entmythologisierung.” In Glauben und Verstehen, 4:128-137. Tübingen: Mohr, 1965. James, William. The Selected Letter of William James. Edited by Elizabeth Hardwick. New York: Anchor, 1993. James, William. A Pluralistic Universe. New York: Longmans and Green, 1909. James, William. “Reason and Faith.” The Journal of Philosophy 24, no. 8 (1927): 197-201. James, William. The Will to Believe: And Other Essays in Popular Philosophy. Human Immortality: Two Supposed Objections to the Doctrine. New York: Dover, 1956. James, William. Talks to Teachers on Psychology, and to Students on Some of Life's Ideals. New York: Norton, 1958. James, William. Collected Essays and Reviews. Edited by Ralph Barton Perry. New York: Russell and Russell, 1969. James, William. Pragmatism. New York: Dover, 1995. James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997. James, William. The Meaning of Truth. New York: Prometheus, 1997. Kant, Immanuel. Critique of pure reason. Translated by Werner S. Pluhar. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett, 1996. Kant, Immanuel. The Critique of Pure Reason. Translated by John Miller Dow Meiklejohn. New York: Prometheus, 1999. Kolb, Robert. Martin Luther: Confessor of the Faith. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. Myers, Gerald E. William James: His Life and Thought. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. Pascal, Blaise. Pensées and Other Writings. Translated by Honor Levi. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Renouvier, Charles. Essais de Critique Général. Paris: Libraire Philosophique de Ladrange, 1859. Shaw, Marvin C. “Paradoxical Intention in the Life and Thought of William James.” American Journal of Theology and Philosophy 7, no. 1 (1986): 5-16. doi:10.2307/27943676. Wengert, Timothy J., ed. The Pastoral Luther: Essays on Martin Luther’s Practical Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009. SN - 1426-1898 (paper) 2353-7043 (online) SP - 301–316 ST - The Hermeneutical Keys to William James’s Philosophy of Religion: Protestant Impulses, Vital Belief T2 - Forum Philosophicum TI - The Hermeneutical Keys to William James’s Philosophy of Religion: Protestant Impulses, Vital Belief UR - http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=54527569&lang=pl&site=ehost-live http://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=forphil&id=forphil_2010_0015_0002_0301_0316 VL - 15 ID - 16 ER -