2.1 The nature of Religious Experience Flashcards
What is the definition of religious experience?
‘an encounter with the divine that brings with it an awareness of something beyond ourselves’
Difficult to define, as it is subjective
What is Sufism?
Islamic mysricism- having a religious experience in an altered state of consciousness (whirling dervishes)
What is meditation?
a technique which trains attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally clam and stable state.
What does Ninian Smart say about religious experience?
its a kind of perception of the invisible world- sense of the ultimate divine
What does Edward Schleiermacher say about religious experience?
a religious experience is one that offers a sense of the ultimate divine, and an awareness of wholeness, a consciousness of the infinite and an absolute dependence.
What does Martin Buber say about religious experience?
God reveals himself to people as they experience him in life and in the world through serious and meaningful relationships
you experience god through the people you know
What does Paul Tillich say about religious experience?
Feeling that demands a decisive decision from the one receiving it
What does William James say about religious experience?
Draws upon a common range of emotions, notably happiness and fear- but directed at the divine
What does Richard Dawkins say about religious experience?
There is no such thing- they’re merely expressions of our psychological needs
What is a direct RE?
where God reveals himself to a person having an exerience
e.g Moses and the burning bush
What is indirect RE?
experience or thought or feelings about god, prompted by events in everyday life
e.g looking at the stars
What is a theistic religious experience?
the person having the experience is distinct and separate from God
What is a monistic religious experience?
all of reality is reducible to one substance, no separation from the divine (buddhism)
What is dramatic or conversion event RE?
a direct experience, the person often sees a vision, with feelings of the power of God
Rudolph Otto calls it a ‘numinois’ experience
What is a response to life and world RE?
indirect experiences which enhance a person’s understanding of their life and the world around them
What is a revelatory RE?
divine self-disclosure where God makes himself directly known (dream/ vision). Acquires a new knowledge
What is a propositional revelation?
God communicates his divine message to a human (moses)
What is a non-propositional revelation?
a person comes to a moment of realisation of divine truth, throught religious experience
What is a near-death experience?
When someone ‘dies’ and is revived, including out of body experiences, feeling of peace, or entering darkness and seeing light
What is a mystical experience?
1) experience of the ultimate divine, unity with divine
2) overwhelmed in the presence of God
3) personal communications with the divine
What is corporate experience?
Large number of people seeming to experience God at the same time
How does music and atmousphere lead to religious experience?
offers people toe express their shared beliefs, state of heightened emotions
Work of evangelists
How does prayer lead to religious experience?
communication with God bring you closer to him
glossolalia- speaking in tongues to connect with God
how does meditation lead to religious experience
gives you an understanding of your union with God, loss of self
What does Ludwig Wittgenstein think of RE?
Each person sees religious experience differently, testimonies are unreliable; some think they’ve had a religious experience, others don’t
What does R. M. Hare think of RE?
an unverrifiable and unsatisfactory blik (world view), personal interpretation makes them unreliable
What does Peter Vardy think of RE?
religious experience depends on ones presuppositions (if you grow up religious you are more likely to have an RE)
What does John Hick think of RE?
religious experience can also be interpreted in non-religious ways
What does Sigmund Freud think of RE?
we feel helpless so create the idea of God in our minds to protect us from the fear of death and loss of control
What is a naturalistsic (biological) explanation of RE?
explanations which are based on natural laws
What is a physiological explanation of RE?
physical changes to the body explain RE (temporal epilepsy)
What is Freud’s psychological explanation for RE?
arises from psychological need to have a God to protect us in a hostile world. Individuals project their psychological needs onto a higher being, religion based.
What is a sociological explanation for RE?
Re comes from purely social, rather than religious factors
Who was William James?
An american philosopher and the ‘father of psychology’
What were the key ideas of William James?
The sheer certainty of testimonies was as convinving evidence as any argument for god
The fact that someone lived their life differently after a RE was physical proof of a change
Who was Rudolph Otto?
A Chritstian protestant theologian who wanted to ascertain what aspects of a RE made it ‘religious’
What were the key ideas of Rudolph Otto?
He thought having a RE was central to the faith of the singular believer
Used the word numinous (something other worldly and separate)
What does mysterium mean?
The mystery of RE as experienced by the individual, that cannot be put into words
What does Tremendum mean?
feeling of awe in RE, sense of dread atimpact of greatness
What does Fascians mean?
nature of believer being drawn into RE by a fascination with divine
