Nature of Religious Experience Flashcards
Numinous Experience
Awe and wonder presence of transcendent God
‘numen’ Moses “afraid to look at God”
Key understanding many religions
OTTO numinous experience Quotes
“there is no religion in which it does not live”
Isaiah - “Holy, Holy, Holy”
what is OTTO idea?
Idea of Holy - vital to religion
mystery of God “mysterium, tremendum, fascinans”
“wholly other”
Schleiermacher/OTTO/Aquinas
OTTO and Schleiermacher all capable of ex w/ God - not consciously awoken
Aquinas - “straw before wind”
Who was OTTO inspired by?
Schleiermacher
religious experience “self authenticating” sola fide
“absolute dependence”
personal
What is an Imaginative vision?
no power to direct/ from God
not normal sight
dreams - Pharaoh Genesis 41 /Joseph
‘eye of the mind’
What is a Corporeal vision?
empirical
physical sense of light
Joan of Arc “bodily eyes”
Bernadette Lourdes auditory - ‘small young lady’ Mary
What is an Intellectual vision?
No image
mystical union/ can’t use ordinary language
St. Teresa of Avila “most distinct feeling”
Mystical Experience - James
not intention prove God exists
world draws significance from spiritual universe
pantheistic view - “divivnity lies all around us”
union with divine
What does James say a mystical experience is?
- passive
- ineffable
- noetic
Example of mystical experience?
St. Teresa of Avila
Mystical Experience - Stace
not intention prove God’s existence
God - eye of beholder “either..mystery or..nothing at all”
goal of mustical union
‘pure consiousness’
What two ways does Stace describe ME?
Extrovertive (normal objects seen)
Introvertive (suppression senses)
What other three ways does Stace describe ME?
- non sensuous
- nophysical sense
- not occult
CHALLENGE 1
SCIENCE - human psychology
- don’t find God in human brain states
