I wouldn’t be a Christian

[vulcanlogician]

One thing I learned there is that Japanese Zen people find US Zen pretty much unrecognizable. US Zen is an American system of thinking. It is mostly cobbled together from concepts which already existed in the Western tradition. If you read William James' Varieties of Religious Experience, for example, you find he has described a well-established current in American spirituality which matches almost exactly what, decades later, came to be called Zen.

I read Varieties some time last year. Very interesting read. I can see the whole Zen thing reflected in his ideas at certain points. But I'd argue he makes room for religious experiences that aren't very Zen-like at all (ie. intense Christian mysticism). One thing that springs immediately to mind is his comparison of a passage of measured Stoic thinking with a more zealous and emotional Christian-inspired passage that was saying more or less the same thing as the Stoic's excerpt. If I remember correctly, James's point was that (as articulate and measured as the Stoic passage was) it was lacking in a certain dimension--namely that of motivating the reader to embrace the truth which both passages were trying to convey.

As far as theistic philosophers go, I've toyed with sharing some of his notions here. He makes some pretty good arguments. And one of his greatest strengths is that he completely sympathizes with the skeptic's mindset. Sometimes, that makes all the difference, y'know?