UNIT 3.1- Religious Experience Flashcards
(19 cards)
Religious experience
A religious experience is the moment when someone comes into contact with God in someway
Rudolphs’ understanding of religious experience
+ analogy
In his book, the idea of holy he tried to identify what made her religious experience religious he said that it would be recognised by having three main qualities
Mysterium - containing a mysterious quality – the realisation that God is completely different from us and can never be fully understood or explained
He used the analogy of Aslan in Narnia to support his understanding of mysterious
Tremendous – God is recognised as a supreme importance and thus we are filled with all and respectful fair of his power
Fascinans- God has a quality that fascinates us, that we are drawn towards – he is both attractive and dangerous and the individual feels a sense of privilege being in his presence
Rudolph ottos’ definition of numinous experience
A feeling of or inspiring holiness that occur during a religious experience
Comes from the Latin numen– to bow the head 
William James’ understanding of religious experience
Definition of real and genuine
William James defined a religious experience as “the feelings, act, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider divine “
Meaning the feelings and experiences of an individual in relation to what they consider God
A real religious experience as one that comes from God, or where God makes himself known he believed that this can never be truly proven
He defined a genuine religious experience as one whether recipient truly believes that they have made contact in someway with the divine. Whether it is will or not, it is unimportant as the person is making an honest claim
“they are states of insight into depths of truth “
James’s 4 qualities of a genuine religious experience
Passivity: The experience happens to the person, rather than being initiated by them; it feels like a divine or outside force is acting upon them
Eg- Quakers and Pentecostal churches were they allow the Holy Spirit to take over them, Buddhists receiving enlightenment
Ineffability: The experience is so profound and unique that it cannot be fully described or expressed in words.
Noetic Quality: The experience seems to reveal a deeper, more profound truth or insight about reality.
Transience: The experience is temporary, lasting only a few moments or hours, but its effects may be long-lasting.
Examples of James’ pint when applied to genuine religious experience
+ quotes
When applied to Moses and the burning bush
Passivity- happens to you
- “he looked, and the bush was blazing”
Ineffability- cannot be described
“Suppose the people do not believe what i am saying”
Noetic experience- gain understanding
“I have come down to rescue them from the egyptians”
Transience- short story
“
The fruits of religious experience
(ACES)
+ applied to Saul
Awareness- increased awareness of yourself and your purpose
Grew to know that his purpose was to be a evangelical Christian
Change- dramatic transformation of yourself
Deep transformation from within him
Elevation – happy experience, having gained knowledge et cetera
Happy and reformation and self actualisation
Self surrender – a conversion, giving up your old ways
Had to stop prosecuting Christians
Case studies used in James’s work
+ two quotes
Conclusions made regarding religious experience
Stephen Bradley, considered himself for Christian from 14 due to a vision of a spirit extending his arms to him “I began to feel exceedingly happy and humble and such a sense of unworthiness”
S. H Hadley “a homeless, friendless, dying drunkard “
Says that “never with mortal tongue can I describe that moment? “after his soul was filled with light
- James concluded that the spiritual value of religious experiences is not undone if we can find psychological explanation
- Didn’t agree that there was a single feature of religious experience that defines it concluded that they didn’t have to be marked by dramatic supernatural events although they can be but the real test is the long-term implication/change in the person
He also concluded that they don’t provide proof of anything although it is reasonable to believe that there is a personal God who is interested in the world and in individuals he said that it was not reasonable for scholars or people to reject clear evidence of religious experience just because they started from position of sceptic ism
Case study used by James
+ conclusions reached about genuine religious experience
Stephen Bradley, considered himself a Christian from 14, due to a vision of a spirit extending his arms to him “I began to feel exceedingly happy and humble and such a sense of unworthiness
S.H Hadley “a homeless friendless dying drunkard “ describe that his soul was filled with light “never with mortal tongue can I describe that moment“
He concluded that conversion cases – where someone is divided and conscious of being wrong and unhappy, becomes much more confident about what is right as a consequence of a firm hold on religious realities
The real test of religious experience is the long-term implication and change in the person goes through, Which demonstrates that they feel they have been touched by God. In comparison to a dramatic supernatural event
He also concluded that religious experiences do not give proof of anything, but it is reasonable to believe that there is a personal God who is interested in the world and in individuals.
Strength of James is conclusions
If there is a God who is beyond our understanding, then James’ idea of the noetic is useful because it would take an incomprehensible, powerful God to be able to reveal such knowledge to us, rather than us as finite limited beings trying to grasp an understanding of this God.
My interpretations?
James is modest in his approach: he never goes as far as to say these religious experiences prove the existence of God. This discourages religious arrogance or superiority - he isn’t preaching at people, just observing and suggesting. He uses lot of first-hand testimonies
It is good to look at other areas of human faculties, such as the psychological, when studying experience. This is more holistic - James is open to studying faculties of our mind which other areas of science often ignore or discredit. There are also similarities between the experiences that would be difficult to make up.
Weaknesses of James conclusions regarding religious experience
Bertrand Russell asserted “the fact that a belief has a good moral effect upon a man is no evidence whatsoever in favour of its truth” - he argued that it might be possible for someone to be profoundly affected for the good by a story about a great hero, but this could happen even if the story were a myth and the hero was entirely fictional.
In the same way that even if a child was exceptionally good, it still doesn’t prove the existence of Santa
British philosopher Anthony Flew believed that statements which cannot be tested empirically (using our 5 senses and our experience) were meaningless. If someone says “I have seen a vision of Mary” - this is meaningless as it cannot be empirically tested/proven.
Flew therefore would reject James’ idea that the authenticity of a religious experience can be tested through its results on the life of an individual as this is not empirical data.
James’ term ‘mystical experience’ is useful in its focus upon an experience which is beyond our natural understanding, but if we can’t understand it have we really said anything useful at all?
Conversion experiences
To convert meaning to change characterise these religious experiences on the significant change in a person’s life in famous examples the recipient is usually atheist or agnostic but their experience leads them to radically change their beliefs
They tend to follow a set pattern the person is dissatisfied by their current systems of ideas
They search for something to help them make decision decisions for example the Bible, church service, listening to other converts
There is a point of crisis with intense emotions, for example, God, sin, bright lights, voices
This is followed by a sense of peace and desire to share
The convert experiences a changing direction and purpose
William James on conversion experiences
He said that to say a man is converted means “that religious aims form the habitual centre of his journey “and he also describes a movement of going from insecure to secure and convinced in your beliefs causing fulfilment and happiness as you now have a firm understanding on reality
Spell psychology could describe conversion, but it was unable to account for all the factors in any given case he argued that they can be tested by its results if a person is happier, kinder, more loving, and more positive than this was enough evidence to suggest that the conversion experience was valid
Biblical example of conversion
When Saul witnessed God in a flash / bright light and then goes blind
Jesus sent someone “so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit “
something like scales fell from Paul’s eyes and he was baptised and began to become one of the most famous evangelical preachers of Christianity
Some may argue that had an epileptic fit. William James may argue that the conversion was a valid religious experience because I had a permanent effect of making him into a Christian who eventually gave his life for his faith .
2 other examples of a conversion
A man named John Pridmore who came out of prison be believing that you get what you wanted out of this world, and you had to take it because no one would give it to you. He killed someone and then wondered how he could hurt people live such a life and not fair. He heard a voice at night and went to confession after what he felt completely changed a new in his heart that he was forgiven and now preaches
Nicky cruz joined a Brooklyn secret gang when he was 15 a fellow gang with member was stabbed, beaten and died in his arms. He met a Christian preacher who told him that Jesus would never stop loving him despite slapping, spitting and threatening him at first eventually after persistence cruise gave his life to Jesus and became a devoted evangelist .
Mystical religious experiences
A mystical religious experience is a broad term that encompasses different religious experiences such as voices and visions where the person feels they have reached an understanding of spiritual truth which cannot be accessed through reason
In the 19th century Mystic taught encounters with God and there was a emphasis on the power of religious experience to convey the otherness of God and achieve feelings of peace and realisation experience is also helped. People understand that God was beyond the boundaries of human knowledge and were often used as an example to show that there is a single truth that God reveals to people regardless a religious experience
Therefore, it also carries connotations of the idea that underneath different doctrine and practices everyone is connecting with the same God
Rudolph Otto and his ideas about the numious quality of religious experiences
Numious experiences at times when the individual games are new and deeper understanding of reality and feels as if healed she have touched on a different dimension, becoming failed with a sense of all and wonder auto defines it as “the distinctive experience of God at once enough to be transcendent, yet striking a recognition that they that here is the primary source of beauty and love”
F.C Happold on mystical experiences
+ quote
“In the true Mystic there is… A widening a vision, so the aspects of the truth are revealed “
He describes similar features in all mystical experiences, despite what religion they come from
The Mystic understands that this physical, material world is only a part of reality and it comes from “divine ground”
human nature is such that people can know that “divine ground through reason or intuition
People have two distinct nature is the ego which we are conscious of and the spiritual or eternal self which he referred to as “the spark of divinity within him “
the purpose of humanity is to discover this eternal self and unite it with the divine ground
Types of mystical visions
Intellectual – seen with the eye of reason an intellectual grasping of knowledge or understand
For example, Saint Theresa of Avila vision of Christ through a “feeling” – he witnessed her actions and the experience
Corporeal - sensory experiences, experience through vision sound in the same way that you would experience a natural object
For example, Saint Bernadette experience visions of a virgin Marriott Lords leading to the discovery of a spring of water which would later become a site of miracles
Imaginative – seen in the mind such as in a dream or in the imagination scene with the eye of the mind
For example, Joseph’s dream, wearing an angel appears to him and warned him of King Herod attempts to kill Jesus
