Seon Master Daehaeng and William James on Religious Faith

In this essay, I attempt to critically visit the psychology of religion movement along with hanmaum studies, focusing on their respective founders, William James (1842–1910) and Seon Master Daehaeng (1927–2012). Both founders emphasized the importance of having a religious faith dimension in our human lives. I focus on describing how their emphasis on the importance of faith is to be related to their experience of life. It should be remembered that they did not actively speculate on matters of faith but preferred, in an empirical way, to work with their concrete experience. Furthermore, for an in-depth study of their fundamental perspectives, I try to articulate what existed as their common ultimate reference point, even if differently named and framed—the "something more" described by James and the Juingong discussed by Daehaeng.