religious experience Flashcards
what is a religious experience
- a personal experience of the divine.
what is a corporeal vision?
- religious experiences that appear to be sensed through the senses such as vision and sound.
- St Bernadette’s vision of Mary
what are imaginative visions?
- Imaginative visions are seen in the mind, such as in a dream or in the imagination. They are ‘seen’ with the eye of the mind.
- e.g. josephs dream
what are intellectual visions?
- Intellectual visions are seen with the ‘eye of reason’. There is no image; there is an intellectual grasping of knowledge or understanding.
- e.g st teresa of avila jesus ‘present to the soul ‘‘felt’ jesus at her right hand
what is a numinous experience
-. It involves feelings of awe and wonder in the presence of an all-powerful being. It is an experience of something ‘Wholly other’
- the feelings involved are unique and unlike anything ordinary. they are sui generis
what does otto mean when he says a numinous experience is non- rational?
it means a religious experience involves a
way of knowing that doesn’t involve reasoning.
what three words does otto use to describe a numinous experience?
- Mysterium – the utter inexplicable indescribable mystery of the experience
- Tremendum – the awe and fear of being in the presence of an overwhelmingly superior being
- Fascinans – despite that fear, being strangely drawn to the experience
according to otto? are numinous experiences important to religion?
- Otto claims Numinous experiences are the core of any religion ‘worthy of the name’.
- it is fundamental to true religion that individuals should have a sense of a personal encounter with the divine.
what is a mystical experience?
- an experience that is mystical intense and totally immersive.
- They don’t just involve distorted visual experience, seeing images and visions or hearing voices.
- often involve a sense of unity with some kind of higher power or even with the universe itself.
what does it mean if a religious experience is passive?
Passive – the experience happens to a person; the person doesn’t make the experience happen.
what does it mean if a mystical religious experience is described as ineffable?
- Ineffable – the experience is beyond language and cannot be put into words to accurately described
what does it mean if a mystical religious experience is noetic?
- Noetic – some sort of knowledge or insight is gained
what does it mean if a religious experience is transient?
- Transient – the experience is temporary
what quote can be used in reference to a mystical religious experience?
- “defies expression, that no adequate report of its contents can be given in words”
what is james pluralist argument for religious experience?
- religious experiences really are coming from a higher spiritual reality
- the universality of certain features of religious experiences across religions is good evidence that they are real.
- the object of mystical experiences is union with god
- ## religious experiences are primary and organised religion is secondary.
what is james’ pragmatism argument for religious experience?
- religious experiences can have positive and profound life-changing effects, which we can observe. This is a reason to think religious experiences are not just hallucinations.
- the case study of an Alcoholic who was unable to give up alcohol but then had a religious experience, after which he was able to give up the alcohol. After the experience, they had gained power which they lacked before.
what does Walter Stace say about mystical experiences?
- Mystical experiences alter or even cause us to lose this sense of the multiplicity of objective (extrovertive) or the sense of self (introvertive) that divides us from the external world.
- not concerned with proving the existence of god. “either god is a mystery or he is nothing at all”
what is an extrovertive mystical experience according to Stace?
-Extrovertive mystical experience is non-sensuous. The world of material objects is still seen but seen with non-sensuous unity. The division of the world into separate objects is dissolved and everything appears to be unified.
what is an introvertive mystical experience according to stace?
-Introvertive mystical experience involves the transcendence of all sensory experience and our sense of self is replaced by mystical consciousness. We lose the sense that we are a self that is separate from the world. The normal intellect is not functioning; it is a non-intellectual experience.
what isa mystical experience according to Stace?
- Unity of all consciousnesses into pure consciousness.
- Outside of space and time.
- Experience of the true reality.
- Peace, tranquillity, equanimity.
- Sacredness and divinity.
- Beyond intellect and logic.
- Ineffable
what did Stace say about St Teresa of Avila’s mystical experience?
“she is utterly dead to the things of the world and lives solely in god.. it is impossible for her to doubt that she has been in god, and god in her.”
what did Stace say about mysticism?
- mysticism is non sensuous and non intellectual union with the divine
- normal conscious is replaced by pure consciousness
what are some philosophical challenges to religious experience?
- we only have the word of the experiencer that their experience took place
- their experiences are highly subjective and personal so they are not objectively real
- the inability to describe mystical experiences suggests they are not real. even James claimed there was a fine like between mysticism and insanity.
what are some responses to the philosophical challenges to religious experience?
- some are group experiences so the evidence is wider
- people who have had religious experiences are likely to claim that they were objectively real.
- ineffability is a key characteristic of mystical experiences in all religions.
