"William James brought something entirely new to the study of religion-he approached his subject from the viewpoint of the philosophyer and the experimental psychologist.

A physician by training, he used his scientific knowledge to classify, compare and examine a fascinating variety of recorded religious experience.

He defined sexual, esthetic, egoistical, and other elements in religious faith with the firmness of a dissecting anatomist and the delicacy of a surgeon who wants to save, not kill."
-- Jacques Barzun