Reproductive Religion? Ernst Troeltsch’s Approach to Individual Religious Experience

Abstract

Recent publications about religion and spirituality in the Netherlands show a growing group of “religious nones”—individuals who do not affiliate themselves with a religion or ideological group. For the “unaffiliated spirituals,” those who call themselves spiritual without being institutionally affiliated, organized religions and religious communities are considered a non-necessity to one’s spirituality. This generates questions about the role, function, and value of institutional, organized religion, and religious communities. Looking at Ernst Troeltsch’s reception of William James’s individualistic approach to religion in The Varieties of Religious Experiences, I show how Troeltsch outlines possible boundaries or prerequisites to an individualized approach to religion and spirituality, specifically on the level of religious experiences. Troeltsch argues that thought, media, and community are crucial parts of (re)productive religious experiences. Putting into question a purely individualistic and privatized approach to religion, Troeltsch offers a helpful and relevant perspective on the importance of religious communities and their role in articulating, even facilitating and regulating individual experiences. Furthermore, he refers to the potential of religious experiences to bridge the tension between individual and community.