The following volume contains the substance of a series of three lectures delivered at Yale University in March 1928, and repeated in the United Congregational Church at Bridgeport, Connecticut, on the Dwight H. Terry Foundation. Its general purpose is the consideration of religion in the light of science and philosophy, and although the main science chosen for discussion has been that of psychology (also in its applied form of psychotherapy), the attempt has been made to preserve a due perspective by not omitting a consideration of the physical and biological sciences in their more general, or philosophical, aspects.
The book represents a somewhat fuller treatment of the subject than was possible in the lectures, and may be regarded as a sequel and completion of the author's previous book, Mind and Personality, since it is an attempt to deal more thoroughly with the problem of personality in its relation to science and to the general concept of 'value.'
Although much of the discussion is abstract and philosophical, it is based upon scientific evidence gained by close and prolonged observation, in hospital and consulting room, of disturbances of human character and conduct.