2.1 The nature of religious experience Flashcards
1
Q
What is a religious experience?
A
- an encounter with the divine
- theists believe that God interacts with them personally, that He intervenes in His creation
- a religious experience brings an awareness of something other than oneself
- for theists, this experience reinforces their belief in the existence of God & contributes to their interpretation of the proof of God’s existence
2
Q
Describe the key concepts of the religious experience
A
- a religious experience is an encounter with the divine - an experience of God as a personal reality
- it is a non-empirical occurrence that brings with it an awareness of something beyond ourselves
- for believers, this makes religious experiences the most convincing proof of the existence of God
- St Teresa of Avila described it as, “God establishes himself in the interior of this soul in such a way, that when I return to myself, it is wholly impossible for me to doubt that I have been in God and God in me”.
- religious experiences may be: individual & subjective (where an individual is made aware of a transcendent reality); corporate (where a group appear to be influenced by powers beyond normal understanding); ineffable (a state of feeling that defies expression)
3
Q
What two groups can religious experiences be categorised by, & why?
A
- direct & indirect experiences
- religious experiences are difficult to define as they can be very different on each occasion
4
Q
Define direct experience
A
where the person having the experience (the experient) feels that they are in contact with God
5
Q
Define indirect experience
A
where there is an inner experience of God’s action in creation (immanence) & ‘something other’
6
Q
What are the seven types of religious experience?
A
in the Evidential Force of Religious Experience (Clarendon, 1989), philosopher Caroline Franks Davis suggests the following seven types of religious experience:
- seeing the work of God when looking at the world (awareness experience)
- having a vision or other inner experience (quasi-sensory experience)
- encountering the holiness of God (numinous experience)
4 . a conversion experience (regenerative experience) - having prayers answered (interpretive experience)
- a sense of the ultimate reality (mystical experience)
- receiving enlightenment & knowledge, perhaps through a revelation from God (revelatory experience)
7
Q
What are the most common positive effects from a religious experience?
A
- feeling of deep, inner peace
- a sense of the need to help others
- a belief that love is at the centre of everything
- a feeling of absolute dependence
- a certainty that everything will turn out for the good
- a sense of joy
- a great emotional intensity
- offers a sense of the ultimate
8
Q
Summarise Exodus 3
A
- Moses was taking care of the sheep & goats of his in-laws; he led them to Mount Sinai; where the Lord appeared in a bush as a flame
- Moses was confused that the fire did not spread; when coming close to it the flame called for Moses
- the flame (God) commanded Moses to stay where he was and to realise he was standing on holy ground; and Moses covered his face because he was afraid to look at God
- God uses this opportunity to tell Moses of the suffering of the Jews as slaves owned by the Egyptians; and sends him to the King of Egypt in order to lead the Jews’ escape & lead them to a fertile and more ethnically diverse land
- Moses doubts his newly gifted ability but God insists that by worshipping Him during their escape the presence will be felt
- God also commands Moses to tell the Jewish civilians & leaders that he sent him (”I AM” = Yahweh = Jehovah = the Lord) and that he is fully aware of the suffering despite not physically appearing there
- God clears any other doubts by confidently stating that he will use his spiritual force to let the King of Egypt free the Jews, making it clear that there will be consequences for the Egyptians: “I will make the Egyptians respect you so that when my people leave, they will not go empty handed”
