Religious Experience

Question 1

Corporate religious experience

(Group)

Answer 1

• Religious experience which happens to a group of people ‘as a body’
• E.G. healing at Lourdes.
• Toronto Blessing, many people who visited a pentecostal church went through strange religious experiences, from speaking in tongues, to laughing hysterically.

Question 2

Key word:
Conversion experience

Answer 2

are those which influence a person to join a religion.

E.G. ST PAUL

Question 3

Numinous experience

Answer 3

An indescribable experience which involves feeling of awe, worship & fascination

Question 4

Principe of credulity

Answer 4

Swinburne principle what we usually believe is what our sense is telling us unless we have proof that its false.

Question 5

Principe of testimony

Answer 5

Swinburne principle that we should usually trust that other people are telling the truth

Question 6

Swinburne provides ways to categorise personal experiences

in His book ‘the existence of God’

Answer 6

Can experince God though..
- public/common places e.g. God in a sunset or in an ocean - where God can be encountered
- private sensations e.g. dreams/visions

Question 7

challenge to swiburnes principes

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

Answer 7

is a mere (small) experience of God sufficient evidence to justify belief in God?
Arguably the existence of God is an extraordinary claim which therefore might require extraordinary evidence.

Question 8

Naturalistic explanations

Answer 8

An explanation referring to natural rather than supernatural cases

Question 9

Neurophysiology

Answer 9

An area of science which studies the brain & the nervous system. Rapidly developing many unknown.
- Scientists have begun to look at the brain and the feeling of a religious experience

Question 10

What is a religious experience/ intro

Answer 10

Non-empirical occurrence = may be perceived as supernatural

• a sense of wonder
• a sense of holiness
• involved the whole person: mind& emotions
• “Religious experience” can have varied interpretations, ranging from general religious activities to specific life-changing events.
• It can be individual or communal, occurring within a religious context or as extraordinary occurrences outside the ordinary.
• Religious experiences encompass diverse forms such as visions, conversions, numinous encounters, and near-death experiences, making them challenging to articulate adequately.
• The authenticity of religious experiences is debated, with some attributing them to genuine encounters and others to psychological factors or scientific explanations.

Question 11

Examples of religious experience

Answer 11

Prophet Muhammad:the night of power (the holiness night in Islam). = e.g, the Muslim practice of praying five times a day comes from the Prophet Muhammad’s personal religious experience in which guidance about prayer was revealed to him, and the style of worship in charismatic

Jesus transfiguration:Christ took three of his disciples on a mountain, where Moses appeared & Jesus was transfigured

Question 12

Schleiermacher (1768-1834)

Answer 12

• He claims religion is based on personal experience
• His famous book called ‘Religion: Speeches to its cultured Desporers (1799)
• Religious experience is self-authenticating (requires no other testing).
• He believed that every individual possesses a consciousness of the divine, often obscured by other concerns.
• Schleiermacher contended that religious experiences could vary across cultures, leading to diverse expressions of religion worldwide, with Christianity being the highest but not the exclusive true religion.

Question 13

Schleiermacher Quote

Answer 13

Religion is ‘a sense and taste for the infinite’

‘Feeling of absolute dependence’

Question 14

Criticism of Schleiermacher

Answer 14

• overemphasises the subjective nature of religion, = reducing it to emotion and undermining the ability to test religious claims against objective standards such as scripture and church teachings.

Question 15

1842 = William James

BOOK: ‘The Variety of Religous Experiences.’

Answer 15

He believes religious are…
- an experience for indivduals that is real: its self-authenticating.
- psycholgical phenomena, making them natural to a person such as thinking is.
- The book was successful for its objective treatment of personal religious experiences, featuring firsthand accounts shared by individuals. + using a pragmatic approach: he was concerned with the actual effects, not the supernatural
- James explored various aspects of religious experience,including conversion, which he saw as a process leading to greater confidence and happiness.

context
- WJ was a psychologist he analysed those who claimed to have religious experience

Question 16

William James: four characteristics of mystical experience

PINT

Answer 16

1. Ineffability: impossible to express (e.g. St Teresa: ‘I wish I could give a description of at least of the smallest thing’
2. Noetic: the experience gives the person an knowledge which is not available through human experience = often people speak of having the truth revealed to them
3. Transiency: the experience lasting for a few hours, but the effects can last a lifetime (a short experience)
4. Passivity: the person having the experience is controlled/ taken over.

Question 17

Features of a mystical experience

Answer 17

• knowledge of the ‘ultimate reality’ is gained which is knowledge usually hidden from the human intellect.
• a sense of ‘oneness’ or unity with the divine is experienced

Question 18

Types of mysticism according to F.C. Happold

1893

Answer 18

1. The mysticism of love and union :needs to be part of something bigger than ourselves.
2. The mysticism of knowledge and understanding:
   finding answers to the ‘secret of the universe’)

Question 19

Mystical experience

Answer 19

Involves the spiritual recognition of truths beyond normal understanding (e.g. visions and voices)

Many ‘mystic’ St John of the cross, Teresa of Avila

• Historically, figures like John of the Cross saw himself as Christians seeking spiritual encounters. = but are seen as mystics today
• Calling an experience “mystical” implies a recognition that individuals may connect with the divine reality

Question 20

1893 = F.C. Happlod study of mysticism

dont get

Answer 20

• in his book: Mysticism: A study & an anthology
• Happold defines mysticism as the foundation of all religions, rooted in, innate human understanding.
• He asserts that mysticism, found in various cultures worldwide, shares common features:
  
  • Recognition of the physical world as only a part of reality, originating from a “Divine Ground.”
  • Humanity’s purpose is to discover and unite with the eternal self and the Divine Ground.
• Happold’s book explores mysticism’s nature, its relation to scientific truth, featuring an anthology of mystical writings from diverse sources, including Plato, and Christianity, including ancient Christian manuscripts purportedly recording the words of Jesus not found in the gospels.

Question 21

Christian Mysticism

Answer 21

• vision and voices from God common in Christianity and many other mysical religious experiences.
• in these visions, the person sees something supernatural (something beyond the realms of normal, natural experience)
• Not always clear whether this is literal
• Visions and voices from God are common forms of mystical religious experience
• Biblical examples include Isaiah’s vision in the temple and Samuel hearing a voice while in the temple.

Question 22

Numinous experience (difficult to define) =Rudolf Otto

Answer 22

• Famous book: ‘the idea of the Holy’ - 1917
• the individual may gain a new and deeper understanding of reality
• Numinous experiences, difficult to define, evoke a profound sense of awe and wonder, often triggered by encounters with beauty or moments of deep reflection.
• According to Otto, numinous experiences are encounters with the divine that transcend normal perception, of the primary source of beauty and love.
  He states: “In the true mystic there is an extension of normal consciousness, a release of latent powers and a widening of vision’’

Question 23

Ottos: ‘ mysterium tremendum et fascinans’

(Tremendous and facinating mystery)

Answer 23

• An awe-inspiring, fascinating mystery
• It focuses on God’s transcendence and eminence - God is so far from humanity we need numinous expereince to be able to approach Him.

Question 24

Three Qualities the divine would recognised

Answer 24

• Quality of mystery: realisation that God is incomprehensible God can be met but never fully captured
• God has a quality that is both attractive and dangerous
• God is recognised as wing ultimate importance

Question 25

Schema

ineffable

Answer 25

An attempt to find words which approach the idea of what is trying to be expressed, but is ultimately inexpressible = e.g. James used the term ‘ineffable’

Question 26

The Value of Experience for Religious Faith

Answer 26

Religious Experience confirms faith - e.g. Teresa of Avila said that she didn’t know that Christ had been involved with the experience - but she knew and felt that Christ was close by.

Religious experiences will strengthen faith for believers - they will feel the experiences and their beliefs hold truth and justice.

Question 27

is relgious experience proof of the existence of God?

Answer 27

• some may be skeptical /in disbelief because they may feel: visons of angles/ hearing prophets could be mistaken, exaggerating or confusing a normal experience.
• EVALUATION: if a person said they saw a pigeon in the sky, people wouldnt consider if they was lying/mistaken. we would automatically accept it - cus theyve seen a pigeon before. - bc we havent encounter God cannot take it at face value

Question 28

critics of relgious experiences

religious expereinces are just pshycological effects

Answer 28

drugs, illness and fasting changes we think and experience the world.
physical state can be affected e.g. lack of sleep = hallucinations

Question 29

critics Feuerbach

1804

The ‘essence of christianity’

Answer 29

• Religious belief and experience have origins within the human mind.
• Religion is an illusion
• humans take the best part of themselve creativity, hope, goodness and project them onto something outside of themselves i.e. ‘God‘

Question 30

‘THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSTRATION’

1856 = Frued

Influenced by Feuerbach

Answer 30

• famous psychologist/ psychanalysis
• he believes people who encounter God are fooling themselves.
• People are unable to cope with adult life – so invent imaginary parent-figure. This implies the reason Christian call God ‘father’ because they are deluded adults that have desires for eternal innocence to avoid the difficulties in the world. Similarrly, humans are so afraid of death and the difficulties of life that they can delude themselves that there is a God who will take care of them and an afterlife
• Mistake their super-ego for God
• religious experiences is a sysmpton an ‘infantile neurosis’ = need to grow out of to live a better life.
• In his book ‘THE FUTURE OF AN ILLUSTRATION’ =“Religion is a system of wishful illusions”

Question 31

Frued: The Mind

Answer 31

• First to work on human ‘psyche’ = we have concious and uncounscious mental process.
• Ego :conscious self (shape by external influences e.g. truma, upbringing)
• Unconscious self = memories, repressed emotions
• conscious/inner moral voice - tells us what is right and wrong

Question 32

Types of Conversion

Answer 32

• The volitional type: which is a conscious and voluntary process [Thomas Merton]
• The self-surrender type: which is an unconscious experience [St. Paul]

Question 33

Conversions as controversial

Answer 33

• All humans behaviour happens within a context
• Could be argued to be the result of social and psychological factors, rather than God, e.g. a lot of prisoners have intense conversion experiences.
  = difficult in distinguishing spiritual from social influences.

Question 34

St Pauls Conversion

Answer 34

• Completely transformative as documented in the New Testament =He was a Jew called Saul who persecuted Christians. On the road to Damascus, he had an experience which converted him to Christianity. change his name to paul
• He preached the Gospel and eventually dying a martyr’s death.
• Michelangelo depicts the story of the conversion of Saul from the book of Acts
• William James argued that the conversion of Saul was a valid religious experience because it had the permanent effect of making him into a zealous Christian. - transiety

Question 35

Donal Winnicott (1896)

Psychological interpretation of religious experience

extended Frued

Answer 35

• He extended Frued ideas into his influence of studies of childhood
• interested in the bond between a child and mother and transitions needed for child to become mentally healthy adult.
• in his study of child development he notice children having emotional attachment to objects & toys. e.g. teddy, blanket
• He states ‘those who cannot distinguish between illusions and reality have hallmarks of madness’ (playing and reality 1971)
• Religion is best understood within illusion. = this gives poeple a sense of place in the world.

Question 36

Physiological interpretation of religious experience

Answer 36

This is one which accounts for religious experience naturalistically in term of the biology’s of the human brain

Question 37

Near-death experiences

Physiological interpretation of religious experience

Answer 37

• Sometimes reported by people whose heart stopped beating, e.g. cardiac arrest or coma
• sensations of leaving bodies looking down and being in a loving presence= which for some suggests life after death/a loving God.
• sometimes also includes bright light at the end of dark tunnel
• Other psychological studies such as Mobbs & Watts suggest that all NDE’s can be biologically extended.

Question 38

Conversions

Answer 38

• Conversion experiences involve abandoning old beliefs and adopting new ones based on their experience
• Individuals search emotionally for a basis to make a decision, which may involve turning to the Bible or hearing stories of other conversions.
• A crisis point occurs marked by intense emotion, often involving a sense of God’s presence, sinfulness, and repentance
• Following the crisis, there’s a sense of peace
• Long-term effects include a purpose in life
• William James described conversion as ’reshaping one’s worldview.’’

x: Firstly, conversion experiences could be hallucinations.
Dr Ramachandran suggests it’s possible that St Paul had epilepsy – his description was consistent with having an epileptic seizure. Epilepsy can cause hallucinations.

Question 39

Can corporate religious experiences be considered more reliable or valid than individual experiences?

Answer 39

• Corporate religious experiences may hold more evidential weight than individual ones.
• Multiple witnesses can provide support for the truthfulness of a religious experience.
• Reports from several individuals can make an experience more credible.
• In legal contexts, multiple witnesses often strengthen the credibility of evidence.
• Group pressure might influence individuals to conform to perceived experiences.
• The Toronto Blessing is cited as an example where heightened emotions may have led to collective experiences.

Question 40

Is personal testimony or witness enough to support the validity of religious experience?

Answer 40

• Religious experiences are often deemed unsuitable as evidence for the existence of God because they cannot be tested or replicated scientifically.
• The strength of belief in religious experiences is not necessarily indicative of their truthfulness.
• Swinburne’s Principle of Testimony suggests that personal religious experiences should be believed similarly to other reported events.
• However, some argue that personal testimony alone is insufficient when the issue is of ultimate importance, such as the existence of God.
• William James proposed that the validity of religious experiences can be judged by their long-lasting effects, akin to the efficacy of medicine.
• Biblical writers caution against false prophets and emphasize the importance of discerning genuine experiences from deceptive claims.