Religious experience Flashcards
What is a religious experience?
- Any kind of experience which happens within a religious context e.g. during a service in a place of worship,
- A specific, life changing event.
How are religious experiences different to ordinary experiences?
- God is experienced as opposed to every day objects
- The person experiences a spiritual change that has a religious dimension e.g. starts to pray more.
- REs are hard to describe.
- REs are not universal to humans but ordinary experiences are.
- REs have different interpretations in different cultures.
- REs can not generally be checked but ordinary experiences can be.
- REs give insight into the unseen
experiences
How does Swinburne group religious experiences?
- Experiencing a normal non-religious object or event that is seen as the handiwork of God
- Experiencing a very unusual public object
- Experiencing private sensations that can be described
- Experiencing private sensations that are not easy to describe
- Non sensory experience. Can’t explain what it was in particular that made them think it was God, it just felt like it.
How did Otto define mystical experiences according to Vardy?
He used the term ‘numinous’ which means having a strong religious or spiritual quality
According to Otto, what three main qualities should the divine in an experience have?
- A realisation that God is incomprehensible (mystery). One might meet God and see his work but will never fully understand God.
- God is recognised as being of ultimate importance.
- During a religious experience God will be both attractive and dangerous. The person will feel privileged to have had the experience but will recognise that God can not be controlled.
What quote did Otto use to describe what an encounter with natural forces should be?
an “awe inspiring, fascinating mystery”
What example does Otto give?
Otto gives the example of the feeling which came over people after a storm destroyed a partially built bridge on the Rhine. When the storm abated an eerie silence descended on the river evoking a strange sense of awe and fear at the power of nature. Otto believed that this experience of the numinous or holy, lay at the root of all religions.
William James was a subjectivist. What does this mean?
This means that he believed that if a religious experience was genuine, it would be proof for the person who had experienced it that God exists but not for anybody else.
William James was a pragmatist. What does this mean?
This means that he was interested in the practical impact of a religious experience and that the truth of the experience lay in the impact it had.
William James did not believe that religious experiences were veridical. What does this mean?
He did not believed what people experienced was objectively true.
How did James believe religious experiences influence religion?
He believes religious experiences are the basis’s of all religion - without it there would be no beliefs, creeds or worship etc - so religious experience is very important.
What factors did James believe made a religious experience genuine?
○ The effects, or ‘fruits’, of the experience on a persons’ life
○ The effects would be lifelong
○ The effects involve “the permanently patient heart and the love of self eradicated”
What were James’ four hallmarks of religious experience?
○ Passive - the person having the experience is not in control of it; presumably god has taken control
○ Ineffable - the experience is hard to express in everyday language
○ Transient - the experience lasts a short time but the effects are long lasting
○ Noetic - the person is given important, often spiritual truths which could not have been arrived at by reason alone
James’ example - Stephen Bradley
○ An uneducated man, a Christian from age 14 because of an experience in which “I thought I saw the Saviour, by faith, in human shape, for about one second in the room, with arms extended, appearing to say to me, Come”
○ 9 years later there was a religious revival in his village, and he realised he was not as certain in his faith as others seemed to be. He wanted this certainty, so went to hear a Methodist preacher, and though he ‘trembled involuntarily’ he ‘felt nothing at heart’.
○ Later that evening, he felt his heart suddenly beating quickly, but felt no pain, and it sped up, convincing him that it was the holy spirit. He began to feel exceedingly happy and humble, and a sense of unworthiness. A ‘stream (resembling air)’ came into his mouth and heart which continued for about 5 minutes. He described how he felt the presence of angels and it seemed as though his reading of the bible was directly the word of god speaking to him. He felt inclined to go and speak to his neighbours about religion, and his faith had an unshakeable quality that he had lacked before.
James’ example - S. H. Hadley
○ A ‘homeless, friendless, dying drunkard’
○ Then ‘I seemed to feel some great and mighty presence. I did not know then what it was . I did learn afterwards that it was Jesus, the sinner’s friend.’ Hadley decided to stop drinking and went to a mission, where he was impressed by the preacher’s conviction of faith. He heard testimonies of ‘25 or 30 persons every one of whom had been saved from rum’ and he went forward to be prayed for.
○ Hadley describes how: “I said, ‘Dear Jesus, can you help me?’ Never with mortal tongue can I describe that moment. Although up to that moment my soul had been filled with indescribable gloom, I felt the glorious brightness of the noonday sun shine into my heart. I felt I was a free man”
○ Hadley never wanted another drink, and felt a new sense of commission, so became an active and useful rescuer of drunkards in New York.
How is ineffability criticised?
Some people take considerable care when describing religious experiences in order to prevent being misunderstood. Others report that they had previously never told anyone of their experience.
How does Underhill criticise passivity?
Religious experiences are active and practical and involve the whole person. People can put themselves in appropriate positions to have a religious experience.
How do Greely and Underhill criticise transiency?
He asked people how long they would say their experience lasted, and some people said up to a year. Underhill would agree with this, and claims that the religious path of mysticism is a lifelong pursuit and therefore not transient at all.
How does Underhill criticise noetic qualities?
The mystic does not seek nor receive knowledge. The mystic’s only aim is for what is spiritual and not of this world. The mystic’s experience of god annihilates all desire for knowledge.
How does James respond to the objection that religious experiences can not be believed as they are often neurotic?
James says that we don’t usually question the mental balance of an artist, we just accept their art. We should do the same with those reporting Religious experiences. Also, he says, a neurotic person is more likely to accept the experience as it is and not explain it away, so they make good subjects for a religious experience.
How does James respond to the objection that people of different faiths have different experiences and portray the being that appeared to them differently and so there can not be a common cause.
James says people of different faiths will explain their experience using their own beliefs and cultural tools. It does not mean that people did not experience the same God.
