Religious experience Flashcards
Characteristics of religious experience?
Not universal
Not verifiable
Not experiences of empirical events or items
Subjective
Interpretative
Provides knowledge of other realities is the divine
Life changing
difficult to describe
Visions?
Visions give recipients insight into a deeper truth or reality, appearing as sensory experiences but not in the usual sense. Caroline Franks Davies calls them “quasi-sensory” as they lack typical sensory features.
Visions?
Visions give recipients insight into a deeper truth or reality, appearing as sensory experiences but not in the usual sense. Caroline Franks Davies calls them “quasi-sensory” as they lack typical sensory features.
Features of visions?
sensory
dreams
intellectual
conversion
individual/communal
sudden/gradual
Sensory?
Corporeal visions appear as external while the person is full conscious
Saint Bernadette’s vision of mary at lourdes
these can be individual or communal
Dreams?
occur during sleep or meditation
usually as individual experiences with images or narratives
example = jacob’s vision ofa ladder to heaven. “he had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven”
Intellectual?
perceived by the mind not the eyes
providing unique knowledge, insight or inspiration
St Ignatius of Loyola described his as an inner awakening withouta physical vision
Conversion?
A life-changing shift in belief, whether from unbelief to faith, betwee religions or a deepening of faith although it may be permanent
Inner conflict - a struggle between one’s current state and desired self
Search for meaning - a desperate need for change and answers
Self surrender and clarity - a breakthrough, bringing peace and purpose
Individual/communal?
Individual - private experience affecting one person like saul of Tarsus
Communal conversion - involves a group as seeen as the day of Pentecost
Sudden/gradual?
Sudden - happens at a specific moment, often involuntary and unexpected
Gradual - occurs over time through conscious effort and choice
Conversions can also be:
Intellectual - accepting new ideas
Moral - accepting new way of life
Social - joining a new group or lifestyle
Notable converts - Muhammad Ali
Cat stevens
CS lewis
John welsey
Mysticism?
Mystical experiences are beyond the material world and difficult to define
Miller identified 5 features
Transendent - beyond the physical world
Ineffable - cannot be descried in ordinary language
Noetic - provides unique knowledge
Ecstatic - creates a sense of euphoria
Unitive - fosters oneness with the divine
Mysticism removes the sense of self - creating unity with the divine
Mysticism removes the sense of self, creating unity with the divine. It can be:
Kataphatic – describes the divine positively.
Apophatic – defines the divine by what it is not.
Introvertive – seeks union inwardly.
Extrovertive – finds unity in the universe.
Theurgic – induced through ritual.
Non-theurgic – passive divine intervention.
Prayer is a religious experience centered on communication with the divine, serving purposes such as worship, thanksgiving, repentance, petition, and building a relationship with God.
Saint Teresa of Avila emphasized contemplative prayer, a deep reflection on God. Her analogies highlight its challenges, culminating in divine union where God takes control.
Garden analogy?
Saint Tereasa compares teh soul to a garden nourished by prayer which can be ‘watered’ in 4 ways
Bucket - hard work, like starting prayer feels exhausting
Windlass - easier but still requires effort as prayer becomes routine
River - god begins to take over, easing the burden
Rain - no effort is needed,full union with God = achieved
Mansions analogy?
Saint Teresa compares the soul to a castle with 7 mansions, each representing stages of spiritual growth - moving closer to the center (union with God)
First Mansion – The soul is distant from God, cold, and distracted by external temptations. Humility is learned here.
Increased Warmth – The soul seeks knowledge but still faces distractions. Self-control is developed, though mistakes can still occur.
Divine Influence – The soul experiences the “prayer of quiet,” where it is influenced by the Divine but still relies on personal effort.
Spiritual Union – God begins to take over, and the soul experiences the “prayer of spiritual union,” feeling God’s presence deeply.
Mystical Marriage – The soul reaches a complete and irreversible union with God, signifying ultimate spiritual fulfillment.
Williams 4 characteristics?
He identified four characteristics of mystical experience
1) passive - Mystics feel grasped by a divine power, often with a positive sensation.
2) ineffable - The experience is hard to describe, leading to the use of religious language.
3) Noetic - The experience provides unique, intuitive knowledge that cannot be gained elsewhere.
4) Transient - Lasts for a short time but leaves lasting awareness.
Ultimately, he viewed mystical experiences as varied from simple feelings to profound consciousness & noted their convincing nature nad the beleif in other realms
Rudolf Otto?
saw religious experiences as sui geners ( unique) and beyond empricial study
He coined ‘numinous’ to describe encounters with a presence greater than oneself, beyond reason
Key features include
Creature consciousness – Feeling insignificant before God’s vastness.
Wholly Other – An experience unlike anything else.
Dread & Awe – A mix of fear, reverence, and speechlessness.
Fascination – A simultaneous draw to and fear of God.
Ecstasy – Ending in ultimate bliss.
Otto believed these features exist in all faiths but saw Christianity as the highest form of spiritual development.
Mysterium Tremendum?
Otto’s Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinas describes
Mysterium - a divine mystery beyond human understanding
tremendum - awe, fear or dread in God’s presence
Fascinas - powerful attraction - making it impossible to turn away
Ultimately, Otto emphasised the overwhelming mix of meotions and sensations in deep religious experiences
Challenegs to religious experience?
Franks Davis identifies 3 types of challenges to religious experience
Description related - te account is unclear, inconsistent or conflicts with knowledge
Subject related - the experiencer’s perception is unreliable or influenced by external factors
Object reated - the described event or object was not present or not casuallt linked
Caroline Franks Davis outlines four additional challenges to religious experiences
Caroline Franks Davis outlines four additional challenges to religious experiences:
Misunderstanding – The experiencer misinterprets or explains the event incorrectly due to lack of knowledge or unclear language.
Delusion – The claim is mistaken or a psychological projection (e.g., Freud’s wish fulfillment, Dawkins’ hallucination theory).
Substance Influence – Experiences induced by drugs or illness may be unreliable. Some cultures, like Hindu Sadhus, use substances for spiritual insight.
Contradiction to Reality – Religious experiences oppose natural laws, making them seem like fantasies that lack empirical verification.
Franks Davis defends religious arguments with 3 key arguments
Validity of individual experience - Religious claims are not empriically verigiable but moments of insight can later be confirmed
Credibility of the individual - using Swinburne’s principle of credulity ( we should trustour perceptions) and testimony ( we should trust others unless there’s reason to doubt)
rejecting all testiony to extreme skepticism
One off experiences are still valid - a single experience can be evidence of divine interaction, even if its never repeated. The absence of God later does not disprove prior encounters
Key Quotes?
Quotes
Teresa Avila: “Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.”
Teresa Avila: “Prayer and comfortable living are incompatible.”
Eckhart: “God is in all things. The more he is within, the more he remains without. The more he is inside, the more outside.”
Otto: “We come upon something inherently “wholly other” whose kind and character are incommensurable (incomparable) with our own.”
Otto: “The mysterium is the wholly other, an object eluding all understanding. It fills the mind with wonder and astonishment.”
Otto: “The tremendum, the daunting and repelling moment of the numinous.”
Otto: “The fascinans, the attracting and alluring moments of the numinous.”
William James: “Noetic quality… mystical states…..are also states of knowledge.”
William James: “ineffability… it defies expression.”
Franks Davis: “Religious experiences are not the sort of thing which can be easily produced for observation in a controlled setting.”
Franks Davis: “One must not assume some undetected and probably undetectable pathology in an otherwise healthy individual.”
Franks Davis: “These principles of credulity and testimony are ultimate principles of rationality which ally to all types of perceptual experiences.”
Evaluation of Religious experience?
Strong impact - Religious experiences shape beleif and practice, with key figutres, e.g Muhammad in Islam founding faith through them
conversions demonstrate their influence
No impact - experience are personal and unverifiable. Ayer rejected his near death experience
Morality is not exclusive to religious individuals
Some impact - experiences can inspire faith without necessarily shaping doctrine
