Religious Experience

Question 1

Visions: Corporeal

Answer 1

Physical senses
St Bernadette of Lourdes

Question 2

Visions: Imaginative

Answer 2

Mind, dreams
Pharaoh’s dream warning of famine

Question 3

Visions: Intellectual

Answer 3

‘See as it really is’
Teresa of Avila

Question 4

Numinous Experience: Rudolf Otto: what does numinous mean?

Answer 4

Means ‘relating to the power of a deity’

Question 5

Numinous Experience: Rudolf Otto: God as the ‘wholly other’

Answer 5

God is different from everything and everyone and is beyond apprehension and comprehension
Eg. Moses and burning bush

Question 6

Numinous Experience: Rudolf Otto: feelings of numinous are Sui Generis

Answer 6

Of their own kind
God can’t be grasped or perceived
Numinous feeling are unique

Question 7

Numinous Experience: Rudolf Otto: numinous feelings bare non-rational

Answer 7

They are beyond rational and can’t be explained

Question 8

Numinous Experience: Rudolf Otto: Mysterium tremendem et fascinans

Answer 8

It inspires feelings of power and awe and inadequacy and can chill and numb
E.g. Peter watched Jesus catch many fish
God is transcendent

Question 9

Numinous Experience: Rudolf Otto: Criticisms

Answer 9

If Sui generis, how do we know they are from god — religious experiences are self- authenticating
Transcendence, how can we experience him within our world?
Non-rational, what can we learn from them?

Question 10

Mystical Experience: Walter Stace: prove existence of god

Answer 10

We don’t need to as goal is mystical union with God

Question 11

Mystical Experience: Walter Stace: Non-sensuous & Non-intellectual

Answer 11

Senses cease to work
Rational intellect of conscious ‘I’ replaced with ‘pure consciousness’

Question 12

Mystical Experience: Walter Stace: visions aren’t mystical

Answer 12

Must have no voice, form, shape, colour etc

Question 13

Mystical Experience: Walter Stace: two types of mystical experience

Answer 13

Extrovertive: see world of normal objects using senses but objects are transformed
E.g. N.M
Introvertive: total suppression of sense experience
E.g. Arthur Koestler

Question 14

Mystical Experience: Walter Stace: Criticisms

Answer 14

Introvertive when senses stop, but how can we then experience something
Discounting visions and voices means discounting lots of biblical miracles

Question 15

Mystical Experience: William James: what is a mystical experience

Answer 15

Experience that leads to some kind of religious union with God

Question 16

Mystical Experience: William James: religious experience is primary, organised religion secondary

Answer 16

Religious experience aren’t a result of being part of a religion
‘God is real because he produces real results’

Question 17

Mystical Experience: William James: psychological benefits of spiritual connections

Answer 17

Energetic zest of life people to be inspired to do heroic deeds

Question 18

Mystical Experience: William James: God isn’t described by Judaeo- Christian teachings in Bible

Answer 18

James doesn’t see God as being. Omnipotent so Hod is likely to be finite

Question 19

Mystical Experience: William James: point of mystical experiences is God meets individual

Answer 19

Different individuals have different needs and so can be dealt with by connecting with God

Question 20

Mystical Experience: William James: 4 criteria to judge if someone had mystical experience

Answer 20

Ineffability
Noetic quality
Transience
Passivity

Question 21

Mystical Experience: William James: Criticisms

Answer 21

Just because someone is affected by experiences, doesn’t mean God exists
Too subjective
Argue against pragmatism
Just shows there is a higher power