Review: The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives, by David B. Yaden and Andrew Newberg

Abstract

Book Review| November 01 2023 Review: The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives, by David B. Yaden and Andrew Newberg The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives. By David B. Yaden and Andrew Newberg. Oxford University Press, 2022. 430 pages. $34.95 hardcover; ebook available. Benjamin Crace Benjamin Crace Independent Scholar Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2023) 27 (2): 133–135. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.133 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Benjamin Crace; Review: The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives, by David B. Yaden and Andrew Newberg. Nova Religio 1 November 2023; 27 (2): 133–135. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.133 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search The Varieties of Spiritual Experience is a book that was begging to be written and David Yaden and Andrew Newberg beat everyone to it. Based on an attempt to update William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), this volume takes both James’ topic and methodological agnosticism seriously. In terms of updating and expansion, the authors bring over a century’s worth of interdisciplinary research to bear on James’ original considerations, nascent trajectories, and even unforeseen possibilities. They claim their aim “is to carry forward James’s insights and fill in some of the empirical gaps of his speculations with decades of scientific work on spiritual experiences” and “to provide a contemporary, scientific guide to spiritual experiences” (9, 12). Divided into three parts with six or seven chapters each, the first part, “The Science of Altered States,” seeks to provide contextual continuity to the overall project and establish basic principles that recur... You do not currently have access to this content.