The Interpretation of Religious Experience is divided into two parts, published in separate volumes. In the first part entitled Historical Watson reflects critically upon religion and especially upon Christianity, discussing theological and philosophical writers. An enquiry into the origin and development of Christianity is conducted, devoting particular attention both to the systematic formulation of religious experience in theology and also to the influence of philosophy on theology.

KEY WORDS: Hegel's philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, Pantheism, Gnosticism, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Augustine, Bernhard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, Eckhart, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant