2.1 The nature of religous experience

Question 1

religious experience

Answer 1

an encounter with the divine which brings awareness of something other than oneself

Question 2

theism

Answer 2

the belief that God continues to intervene in the universe after creation

Question 3

Schleiermacher & Tillich definition

Answer 3

an experience that offers a sense of the ultimate or a feeling of ‘ultimate concern’ that demands a decisive decision.

Question 4

William James

Answer 4

suggested religious experiences give a person an overwhelming experience of joy, reverence and a desire to belong to God.

Question 5

OT example

Answer 5

Moses and the burning bush in Exodus

Question 6

direct experience

Answer 6

the person having the experience feels they are in contact with God, for example during prayer

Question 7

indirect experience

Answer 7

where there is an inner experience of God’s immanence and a feeling of him acting on the world, for example in meditation

Question 8

Caroline Franks Davis seven type of religious experience (three examples)

Answer 8

1. Awareness - seeing the work of God when looking at the world.
2. Interpretative - having prayers answered.
3. Revelatory - receiving enlightenment from God.

These RE may be direct/indirect or public/private. Common themes include INNER PEACE, A FEELING OF CALM, A SENSE OF OTERS AND FEELING TO HELP THEM

Question 9

Foundational religous experience

Answer 9

An experience that forms the basis of a religious movement, whether smaller sects within a religion or major interpretations within a religion.

Question 10

Saul of Tarsus Background

Answer 10

1. Saul of Tarsus was the original name of St Paul - a great Christian missionary to the Gentile world.
2. Saul was a Pharisee
3. He hated the influence that the new Christian sect was having on Judaism.
4. The experience is convincing - converted from hating Christians to being convinced Jesus as the Messiah.
5. Martyred for his beliefs in Rome.
6. Experience had many features of an RE - visual, auditory, left with temporary blindness, conversion.

Question 11

Saul of Tarsus story summary

Answer 11

Travelled to Damascus - suddenly a light of heaven shone around him - Jesus asks ‘Why are you persecuting me’ - went three days without sight - Ananias lays hands on him and fills him with the Holy spirit - scales fell from his eyes - he rose and was baptised.

Question 12

Challenges to Saul of Tarsus

Answer 12

1. St Paul suffered from epilepsy - his fall to the ground but recovery suggests a GRAND MAL SEIZURE.
2. The experience of light and hearing a voice is also a symptom.
3. Epilepsy was regarded as morbus insputatus - the illness at which one spits. In his epistles, Paul sometimes hints that he suffers from a mysterious and shameful ailment.
4. Christian’s do not question the conversion as being a seizure - the point of interest i whether his experience gave him any real knowledge of the God he attributed it.

Question 13

William James - PRAGMATISM

Answer 13

• Accepted RE are psycological phenomena occurring in our brain - this does not mean they are JUST that…
• Founded the theory of knowledge ‘Pragmatism’ - we can NEVER establish what is true in an absolute and ineffable way, we decide what is true according to what works for us in practical terms.

Question 14

William James - RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Answer 14

• RE express truth in PRAGMATIC terms, true to the extent they help us individually improve and make sense of our lives.
• Thought RE likes at the HEART OF RELIGION and constitutes the TRUE RELIGION.
• Thought the best way to judge the validity of a religious experience is to observe long term effects on recipient.

Question 15

William James - four characteristics (pint)

Answer 15

PASSIVE - the experience controls you and not you it, comes to the recipient unbidden.
INEFFABLE - cannot be described in ordinary language
NOETIC - the believer gains some knowledge that couldn’t be reached by reason alone.
TRANSITORY -It is fleeting or momentary.

Question 16

1. CORPORATE EXPERIENCES

Answer 16

An experience that happens simultaneously to two or more people.
E.g. 1994 TORONTO BLESSING a large number of believers who reported being affected by the Holy Spirit. People were reported to be WEEPING, ROLLING ON THE FLOOR and making ANAMAP NOISES.

BUT could be 1. mass hysteria 2. extreme aesthetic reactions to religious stimuli 3. fraud

Question 17

2. NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCES

Answer 17

Near-death experiences are said to occur when someone ‘dies’ and is resuscitated.

Common aspects are FEELINGS OF PEICE, OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE, ENTERING DARKNESS AND SEEING LIGHT.

Fenwick identified several features e.g. A LIFE REVIEW, A DECISION TO RETURN and a REMOVAL OF THE FEAR OF DEATH.

People’s lives are drastically changed as the result of a near-death experience and they may live life more serenely and compassionately.

Question 18

3. REVELATORY EXPERIENCES

Answer 18

Where God makes himself directly known e.g. through visions/dreams

Propositional revelation - God communicates his divine message to a human being

Non-propositional revelation - Through RE a person comes to a REALISATION about a divine truth - believers recognition of God acting. An example is the Bible - collection of perceptions of Religious believers who have witnessed revelatory acts through history.
St Teresa of Avila offered two tests to determine if GENUINE 1. Does it fit with Christian teaching?
2. Does the experience leave the individual feeling at peace?

Question 19

4. MYSTICAL EXPERINCE

Answer 19

For some it’s NOT religious. Experiences of an inner or deeper self or of oneness with nature.
In a religious sense, ME is one in which the believer becomes at one with Ultimate reality. The subject feels they are on the same level of reality while still retaining an awareness of self as a distinct entity.

James concluded ME in different faiths are essentially the same experience with ‘Ultimate reality’ but are interpreted with the belief structure most familiar to them. He believed ME are the primary experience of humanity.

Question 20

5. DRAMATIC OR CONVERSION EVENT

Answer 20

A direct experience and one that is NUMINOUS IN NATURE. NE inspire awe and wonder in the presence of an almighty and transcendent God. E.g. Saul of Tarsus.

Have been documented up to modern day. When people are in a religous building they may be filled with an awareness that there is something greater than them which they feel to be God.

Question 21

Rudolf Otto

Answer 21

Argued that all experiences are numinous in nature. An RE produces a ‘sense of taste for the infinite’.
Identified the element ‘mysterium tremendum’ literally a ‘fearful mystery’ - the tendency of religious experiences to cause fear and a sense of dread.
The experience provides a reference point and from then on the believer interprets the world through the experience and the beliefs attached to it.
For Otto, numinosity DEFINES RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. God can only be known via sensory experience.