key terms Flashcards
key terms for religious experiences
Conversion
Change from one set of beliefs to another, with life-changing consequences.
Pragmatism
A philosophical movement, largely in the US, that believes that a theory may be treated as true if it works satisfactorily in practice. William James and Charles Sanders Pierce are the best-know philosophers in the tradition
Ineffability
Unable to be expressed in words
Noetic quality
James’ term for the way that religious experience imparts knowledge unlike any other.
Passivity
The idea that we contribute nothing to true religious experience: we are taken over by it
Transcience
For James, a quality of religious experience, lasting only a brief time with life-changing significance.
Principle of credulity
Swinburne’s principle that people should be believed unless we have good reason to disbelieve them.
Principle of testimony
Swinburne’s principle that people in general are truthful. There need to be good reasons to doubt their honesty
Corporate experience
An experience shared by a group, such as a Toronto blessing
Mysticism
The belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be achieved through subjective experience, as an intuition or insight into the divine.
Mystical experience
An experience of something transcendent, beyond normal awareness.
Numinous (from the latin ‘numen’ or ‘deity’)
Description given by Otto to any experience of God which transcends the everyday
Wholly other
Name given by the Otto to that transcendent nature found in mystical experiences, quite unlike any other.
Mysterium tremendum et fascinans
Otto’s description of mystical experiences - as mystical and seductive
