3D: Impact and influence of religious experience

Question 1

How have religious experiences impacted religious communities?

Answer 1

• Pentecost: speaking tongues, prophecy, healing, unofficial birthday of the Church: the early Church grows out of this experience
• Charismatic Movement: fastest growing movement in Christianity
• Miracles: eg healing in Lourdes
• Paul’s conversion: ‘Apostle to the Gentiles’, his letters became scripture and his journeys spread Christianity
• St Augustine: Original Sin, eucharist and baptism, salvation, eschatology, overcomes Pelagius on free will

Question 2

How have religious experiences impacted individuals?

Answer 2

• Increases faith and belief
• Resurrection
• Conversions: Sundar Singh converted Sikh to Christian and evangelised Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims
• St Augustine: Manichean to Christian. changed his views on sin and salvation
• CS Lewis: intellectual conversion,
  lead to growth of intellectual apologists

Question 3

Hardy: a religious experience “usually induces in the person concerned a conviction that…

Answer 3

everyday world is not the whole of reality: there is another dimension to life”

Question 4

What are some triggers for a religious experience?

Answer 4

Rituals (and preparations for them such as praying and fasting)

Question 5

What is the relationship between religious experience and religious practice?

Answer 5

• Could be argued that religious practice encourages religious experiences: ie Teresa of Avila’s 4 waters and 7 mansions (with practice we can be spiritually closer to god)

Question 6

What is the difference between belief-in and belief-that?

Answer 6

• Belief-in: more than just belief but an element of truth. leans more into faith. What we feel. eg “I believe in Jesus”
• Belief-that: a claim that is objectively true and a fact, grounded in physical events but can also include interpretation. What we think. eg “I believe that in Sikhism the first Guru is Guru Nanak”

Question 7

Why are both ‘belief-in’ and ‘belief-that’ seen as being part of religious faith?

Answer 7

Both are brought about by a personal religious experience of faith

Question 8

What different ways might religious experience develop belief-in and belief-that?

Answer 8

• Faith can lead to experience
• Expereince can lead to faith

Question 9

How does affirmation of the belief system have value for religious communities?

Answer 9

• many religions have a central figure/community linked to its founding: often have significant experiences marking the start of their ministry
• Christianity: events (eg appearance of angels to Mary and Joseph) affirm beliefs
• Disciples experiences of resurrection affirm beliefs of life after death
• Matthew 3: Baptism by John the Baptist confirms Jesus’ identity as the Messiah
• Paul underwent conversion experience on the road of Damascus

Question 10

How does promotion of the faith value system have value for religious communities?

Answer 10

• Religious experiences serve as a basis for understanding doctrine and ethical systems
• Moses received 10 commandments from God: provided moral guidelines for Israelites
• Buddha’s enlightenment experience acts as a model for meditation and self discovery
• Muhammad received revelations forming the Qur’an; serve as a source of Islamic law

Question 11

How does strengthening cohesion of religious community have value for the religious communities?

Answer 11

• Bonds strengthened through shared worship and commemorations
• Collective worship fosters spiritual growth and unity in community
• Festivals and rites of passage highlight shared beliefs and values
• Practices eg reading religious texts reaffirm faith and spirituality
• Rituals reinforce solidarity and remembrance of important events
• Shared worship and rituals create communal experiences

Question 12

How does faith restoring have value for the individual?

Answer 12

• Both one’s own religious experience and the testimony can be of value
• CS Lewis lost faith after WW1, but had a numinous experience in 1931
• A historical religious experience may help restore faith
• Might come during prayer
• Pilgrimage can rekindle dwindling faith and commitment
• Encouragement from religious community and sharing experiences can also restore faith

Question 13

How does strengthening faith in face of oppression have value for the individual?

Answer 13

• Hearing about religious experiences in times of opposition: many involve miraculous acts of God
• Accounts of martyrs
• Prayer and meditation during times of opposition can lead to spiritual strength and faith
• Believers may feel God’s presence during religious experiences: gives courage to persevere despite persecution (eg Pentecost: disciples encountered holy spirit, which empowered them to proclaim about Jesus and endure prosecution)

Question 14

How does renewal of commitment to religious ideals and doctrines have value for the individual?

Answer 14

• Many religions offer opportunities for believers to renew commitment to faith
• Initiation ceremonies (eg Amrit Ceremony) are moments of reaffirmation
• Adult baptism involves public commitment to faith
• Lent: fasting, repentance and spiritual discipline
• Holy places can trigger religious experiences, leading to renewed commitment

Question 15

How did founding fathers gain their knowledge?

Answer 15

from religious experience

Question 16

What is the value in celebrating a past religious experience?

Answer 16

• brings religious community together in a united celebration
• ie Hanukkah: celebrates RE of the ‘miracle of the oil’. In 164BC a group of Jews recaptured Jerusalem from the Greeks. When they came to rededicate the temple they only had enough sacred oil to light the menorah for one day. Stayed lit for eight days.
• Jews celebrate this every year during the eight days of Hanukkah, by lighting candles every night and eating fried food to remind them of the oil

Question 17

Reasons to suggest that religious experience DOES impact religious belief and practice

Answer 17

• An individual’s prayer clearly is a religious experience for them: private prayer is claimed to be not just a one way experience but also an exercise in listening to the voice of God
• Theistic religions seek union with God, while non-theistic religions seek the loss of self: both are essentially a religious experience and the foundation of their practice
• Rites of passage are equally a religious experience
• Creed formulated from key religious experiences that have affirmed the religious beliefs: therefore REs are vital for the beliefs
• REs influence belief and practice as they are often the reason for practice (eg pilgrimage or festival)
• Conversion experiences are clearly examples of religious experience that have an impact on the religious belief of the individual
• William James: the fruits of the religious experience as evidence that religious experiences impact positively on a persons life

Question 18

Reasons to suggest that religious experience DOES NOT impact religious belief and practice

Answer 18

• Just participating in a religious practice does not guarantee the person participating is the receiver of a religious experience
• Many have called into question the truth of claimed past religious experiences (eg Christianity: many modern scholars dispute literal interpretations of the virgin birth and physical resurrection, instead think they are symbolic rather than literal)
• Assembling at a place of worship is not a religious experience but can be considered of value in strengthening cohesion with within the community
• It is difficult to probate that the changes in an experience are due to the experience rather than psychological reasons

Question 19

Reasons to suggest religious communities ARE entirely dependent on religious experiences

Answer 19

• The foundation of the faith has some sort of religious experience to show the authority of the central figure of faith
• Christianity is based on resurrection and miracles
• Particular events in religious faith are often associated with a religious experience: remembered through festivals and pilgrimages
• The account of the resurrection of Jesus, if interpreted symbolically, can still inspire and be meaningful to the community
• Jesus said where two or three are gathered together, there he is also: suggests there is something special about the gathering together of religious believers for prayer and worship
• If there were no religious experiences from the past then there would be no religious communities
• Some Christians argue religion is about knowing God and often expressing it in terms of the need for both head and heart knowledge: heart knowledge demands religious experience, so individuals may need a personal experience of God rather than second hand accounts

Question 20

Reasons to suggest religious communities ARE NOT entirely dependent on religious experiences

Answer 20

• Many religious experiences have been challenged and doubted as historical happenings: interpreted as symbolic or mythological or in terms of modern psychology
• Those who have undergone a religious experience are often accorded higher status within their traditions and often regarded as being bestowed with a form of divine authority
• The experiencing of visions and mystical events may not be open to all believers and therefore do not constitute an essential element of what it means to be religious
• Physiological factors (eg drugs and research into stimulation of temporal lobes) suggest natural explanations for religious experiences
• Psychological factors (eg certain personality traits and the work of Jung) have raised doubts about validity