The Varieties of Religious Experience · Character

Edwin Diller Starbuck

The California psychologist whose questionnaires turned conversion into data, giving James hundreds of first-person accounts to sort, count, and quote.

supporting

Also known as Professor Starbuck, Professor Starbuck of California, Starbuck, Dr. Starbuck, E. D. Starbuck, Edwin D. Starbuck

First appearance: Lecture IX: Conversion

As a supporting figure in The Varieties of Religious Experience, Edwin Diller Starbuck is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Source of a manuscript collection from which James quotes a clergyman's experience of the divine.

In the storyLecture III: The Reality of the UnseenOpen this moment free

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Starbuck is James's silent collaborator — the man who asked ordinary people, mostly adolescents, to describe the exact moment their lives turned toward God, and then tabulated the answers. His method supplies the book's empirical spine: patterns of crisis, surrender, and sudden peace that recur too often to be dismissed as accident. James both relies on him and gently pushes past him, using the statistics as a floor from which to speculate about what such transformations actually mean.

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See Edwin Diller Starbuck in Lecture IX: Conversion

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Exemplars of Religious Experience
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Alline’s psychological peak occurs as he confronts the utter futility of his own efforts—his seeking, praying,…

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Edwin Diller Starbuck appears across 5 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

Lecture III: The Reality of the Unseen
Source of a manuscript collection from which James quotes a clergyman's experience of the divine.
Lectures IV and V: The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness
His circular of questions provided the document quoted as an example of healthy-mindedness.
Lecture IX: Conversion
His statistical studies on conversion are cited, distinguishing between gradual and sudden conversions and the role of crisis.
Lecture X: Conversion—Concluded
His statistical studies are referenced as supporting the view that conversion is akin to ordinary spiritual growth.
Endnotes
Quoted for a case of purification by elimination and for his study of religious experiences.

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See Edwin Diller Starbuck in Lecture IX: Conversion

See Edwin Diller Starbuck in Lecture III: The Reality of the Unseen