A genuine first-hand religious experience... Is bound to be a heterodoxy to its witnesses, the prophet appearing as a mere lonely madman. If his doctrine prove contagious enough to spread to any others, it becomes a definite and labeled heresy. But if it then still prove contagious enough to triumph over persecution, it becomes itself an orthodoxy, its day of inwardness is over: the spring is dry; the faithful live at second hand exclusively and stone the prophets in their turn.
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Original Citation
James, William. "The Value of Saintliness." Gifford Lecture. c. 1902, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland. Lecture.
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Current Citation
James, William. "The Value of Saintliness." The Varieties of Religious Experience, edited by Martin E. Marty. Penguin Classics, 1982.
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