The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature

Lectures 6 and 7 are combined to expand upon an opposing condition to healthy-mindedness: the sick soul. Healthy-minded people minimize evil and ignore it. They focus, instead, on the positive aspects of life and their belief in a divinity that works toward the ultimate good. Christians practice healthy-mindedness through absolution and repentance, keeping their eyes averted from sin. Rather than living with regret or self-hatred, they release themselves from their sins through confession or faith. While Martin Luther may seem as though he did not adhere to healthy-mindedness, his assertion that people should embrace their existence as sinners and turn to God for saving is another example of focusing on good rather than evil.

However, there are those who cannot help but look at evil and see how it affects life. These individuals see evil as an essential part of human nature—inescapable and pervasive. James points to the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy as an example of someone who sees the world in this way. Tolstoy’s ability to pull himself from depression is attributed to a religion which promotes an aspect of rebirth. The Russian author found redemption because his religion saved him from his fixation on the omnipresent evil.