Intimacy with the Divine

Explores how different philosophies (dualistic theism, monistic pantheism, pluralistic radical empiricism) affect the closeness and personal connection humans can feel with God or the divine.

James explores how different spiritual philosophies achieve (or fail to achieve) intimacy with God: theism leaves humans as outsiders, while pantheism fuses them substantially with the divine.

Intimacy with the Divine is one of the patterns A Pluralistic Universe by William James returns to. The chapter notes above are from this edition’s companions — open those chapters to see how the book stages the idea rather than treating the theme as a slogan.