2.3 | Religious Experiences Flashcards
Religious experience
*not like a normal experience
*not universal to all human beings
*not open to verification
*subjective
*difficult to describe
*give insight to spiritual realm
*produce spiritual change
Sensory Visions
*seeing something as externally present
*subject is fully conscious
*corporeal (used by Teresa of Avila)
Eg. Moses seeing the burning bush- he was completely awake; alone
Eg. Miracle of the Sun at Fatima- sun was dancing across sky & emitting multicoloured lights; communal, multiple people watched
Intellectual Visions
*brings knowledge, certainty, understanding
- Teresa of Avila saw Christ
- Not with her eyes or soul; got clear understanding which exceeded understanding in a normal way- can’t be articulated
*leave person with a sense of peace
Dreams
- in the minds eye
- happens while sleeping/ deep meditation
- coherent- brings message from Divine; important, can be interpreted by receiver
Eg. Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:12-13)
-Angels travelling up and down a ladder from earth to heaven
-God watched him and said land would be given to him and his descendants
Individual Conversation
-regeneration/ change
*no faith to faith
“I am telling a story of two lives. They have nothing to do with each other. Oil and vinegar” - C.S. Lewis
*one faith to another
*strengthening faith
John Wesley- heart was strangely warmed as he read works from Luther
Communal conversion
Acts 2: Day of Pentecost
*crowds from all over gathered on Jerusalem for Passover
*Holy Spirit enabled them to understand each other’s mother tongue- spread message of god
*3000 converted
Billy Graham Evangelistic Missions
*reached 200 millon people
Sudden
A specific moment of self surrender
Spontaneous
Involuntary
Gradual
Can not be pinpointed in time
Seeking rather than being led
Takes time
voluntary
William James- CONVERSION
Conversion of the SICK SOUL to HEALTHY MINDEDNESS
- Divided self
Loss of pleasure - Desire for relief
- Self surrender
A breakthrough
Ninan Smart- seven dimensions of Religion
*experimental/ emotional dimension
*central to all religions
*seminal event that insures religion
- generates rituals/ doctrines/ myths
*response to rituals & feelings
Types of mysticism
Introvertive
Extrovertive
Theurgic- induced through rituals
Non theugic- passively received
Ed Miller- MYSTICISM
Transcendent
Ineffable
Noetic
Ecstatic
Unitive
Transcendent
Experience beyond empirical world
Ineffable
Cannot be described with ordinary language
Needs to be specific to religion: symbols/ analogies
Noetic
Uses knowledge that cannot be obtained from ordinary sources
Ecstatic
High emotional state of euphoria
Impact ones experience
Unitive
Oneness with the Divine
Mysticism
Different from ordinary experience
Non rational- reason not needed
Removal from self- not separate from the Divine (vitally)
Spontaneous
Induced through ritual- deliberate union with Divine
Prayer
Communication with the Divine
*thanksgiving
*petition
*repentence (forgiveness for wrong doing)
*worship
*contemplation (reflection
CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER- GARDEN ANALOGY (Teresa of Avila)
(Garden is soul- water is effects of prayer)
- BUCKET: demanding work, little reward- MEDITATION
- WINDLASS: quicker/ easier/ familiar work, some reward- PRAYER OF QUIET
- RIVER: burden of watering disappears, much easier, still have to put a bit of effort in- UNION EASIER CONNECTION WITH GOD
- RAIN: no work- CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER ESTABLISHED; UNION OF SOUL WITH THE DEVINE COMPLETE
Contemplative prayer- seven mansions (Teresa of Avila)
William James
*career in medicine
*interest in psychology
Still believed in mystical/ religious experience- was authentic
Objective study of religious experiences
Not deciding existence of God
Looking for common characteristics
Varieties of Religious experience
William James- PINT (mystical experience)
Passive
Ineffable
Noetic
Transient
Passive
The persons free choice is abandoned. The experience happens to the person regardless of their will
‘Thrown into expansive freedom’
Transient
The experience is temporary- it eventually passes
‘It comes and goes like riding a wave’
Trying to get back there
Rudolf Otto
Idea of the Holy
Religion too intellectual
Developed a new schematisation of religious experience as being in a category of its own- Sui generis
Otto- Heilig
Heilig- holy
Original meaning lost
Too associated with morality
We need new language to do justice to the special quality of the holy
Schema
A set of words
Schematisation
Process of systemising words
Numinous
Supernatural/ divine power
Free from moral + ethical connotations
What does the numinous experience include?
*creature consciousness
*wholly other
*sense of dread of awe and dread
*simaltaneous fascination
*sense of ecstasy
Creature consciousness
Feeling weak and insignificant in God’s presence
Not negative- you don’t need to worry about your problems
“Wholly other”
Numinous is like nothing else that can be experienced
Awe and Dread
It compels a person to kneel or prostrate themselves and be speechless
Love and fear of God is two sides of the same coin- you can feel both at once
State of ecstasy
State of ultimate bliss
Christianity- Otto
It is the superior religion when it comes to human spiritual development
Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans
“The deepest and most fundamental element in all strong and sincerely felt religious emotion”
Mystery that is both awe, inspiring and fascinating at the same time
Mysterium
God is a “wholly other” - a mystery
Neti neti- not this, not that
Feeling of being in the presence of a force much greater than themselves
Tremendum
*awfulness
Mystical dread
*majesty
Feeling personal insignificance
*energy
Numinous alive; shakes us to the core of our being repels us
Et Facsinans
Mercy- can admit a person into presence
Love- personal relationship, not merely factual
Comfort- satisfaction and fulfilment
*pull or attraction of experience, being unable to drag oneself away
Description related challenges
Challenging the way the event is explained
*based on Swinburne’s Principle of Testimony
-we should believe what people tell us
Logically inconsistent
Eg. Misremembering, lying, exaggerating
