Religious experience Flashcards
What is the problem with religious experiences?
Whether or not they are veridical. In other words, can we check the truth of them, and can we actually demonstrate that they are what they seem to be- experiences of God.
What did William James conclude about religious experiences?
He said that religious experiences on their own do not demonstrate God’s existence, although they can suggest the existence of something larger.
What general argument for God does William James offer?
He says that the phenomena of religious experiences point ‘with reasonable probability’ to a higher order of reality.
What does William James say about religious belief in regards to religious experience?
In Varieties of Religious Experience he makes it quite clear that religious experience is central to religious belief. Not everyone takes this view, but even the Church was founded on religious experiences, such as those recorded in the Bible.
What quote does William James about religious experience and proof of God?
“I feel bound to say that religious experience, as we have studied it, cannot be cited unequivocally supporting the infinitist belief. The only thing in unequivocally testifies to is that we can experience union with something larger than ourselves and in that union find our greatest peace.”
What quote does William James use about religious experience and the higher order of reality?
“I think it may be asserted that there are religious experiences of a specific nature…I think that they point with reasonable probability to the continuity of our consciousness with a wider spiritual environment from which the ordinary man is shut off.”
What did Ninian Smart say about mystic experiences?
That mystic experiences could be classified into types but he distinguished between the experience of the numinous (the prophetic experience) and the mystical experience.
How did Ninian Smart distinguish between the numinous experience and the mystical experience?
- The numinous always involves an awareness of how different the experiencer is to the Deity. In mysticism there is an emphasis on union.
- The numinous experience involves a sense of dependency on something external, whereas the mystic experience focuses on the internal.
- The numinous usually happens suddenly and unexpectedly, whereas in mysticism there is often preparation.
Who coined the term ‘numinous’?
Rudolf Otto
What did Rudolf Otto say that all religious experiences have in common?
He argued that the one common factor in all religious experience, independent of cultural background, and it is this experience that he identifies as the numinous.
What is religious experience about for Rudolf Otto?
A feeling; in particular, the experience of the holy.
What term did Rudolf Otto apply to numinous experiences?
Mysterium tremendum et fascinans
What quote does Rudolf Otto use to explain numinous experiences?
“Beyond our apprehension and comprehension, not only because our knowledge has certain irremovable limits, but because in it we come upon something inherently ‘wholly other’, whose kind and character are incommensurable with our own and before which we therefore recoil in a wonder that strikes us chill and numb.
What elements does the tremendum component of the numinous experience comprise of according to Rudolf Otto?
Awefulness- Inspiring awe, a sort of profound unease.
Overpoweringness- That which, among other things, inspires a feeling of humility.
Energy or urgency- Creating an impression of immense vigour, compelling.
What elements does the mysterium component contain according to Rudolf Otto?
Wholly other- Totally outside our normal experience.
Fascination- Causes the subject of the experience to be caught up in it.
What quote does Rudolf Otto use about Christianity?
“Christianity…stands out in complete superiority over all sister religions.”
What are some examples of numinous experiences?
- Moses at the Burning Bush (Exodus 3:6)
- Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 6:5)
- The calling of Simon Peter (Luke 5:8)
- The writings of Julian of Norwich (revelations chapter 75)
What aspects of the numinous experience can be seen at Moses at the Burning Bush?
Moses experiences fear and terror “He was afraid to look at God.”
What aspects of the numinous experience can be seen in the writings of Julian of Norwich?
The aspect of awe and dread and resulting humility.
Why is Martin Buber’s view seen to be a contrast to the numinous experience proposes by Rudolf Otto?
The emphasis in the numinous experience of the ‘otherness’ of God tends to put an impersonal idea at the heart of religious, whereas Martin Buber stresses personal relationships and that which underlies them.
What two kinds of relationships does Martin Buber argue for?
The I-It and the I-Thou.
What is the I-It relationship according to Martin Buber?
When we view people and things as merely phenomena.
What is the I-thou relationship and how do we reach it?
By probing more deeply we can enter an I-thou relationship with both people and things, such as that we can call a personal relationship.
What quote does Martin Buber use about I-Thou relationships in regards to God?
“It is here that we encounter a Thou over against our I. And this is the realm also where we encounter God.”
What is Martin Buber’s approach often interpreted as?
This approach is interpreted as an experience of God through our relationships with people and the world.
What is a direct religious experience?
This refers to events where God reveals themselves directly to the person having the experience. The religious experience is not chosen or willed by the person; the person experiences or observes God in some way.
What is an ineffable experience?
Used to refer to experiences which are beyond human powers and abilities to fully describe and communicate.
What is an indirect religious experience?
Experiences, thoughts or feelings about God that are prompted by events in daily life, for example observing the stars in the sky and having thoughts about the greatness of God the Creator.
What did Rudolf Otto mean by numinous?
He meant the world that is beyond the physical observable universe in which we live. Hence Otto refers to direct experiences of God as experiences of the ‘wholly other’- meaning completely outside of our possible knowledge and experience.
What did Rudolf Otto say was a central element of direct experiences of God?
Was the ‘apprehension of the wholly other’ which Otto called the numinous.
What did rudolf Otto notice about religious experiences?
That the people who have them described them with words such as awe, wonder, beauty, but the actual nature of the experience was ineffable.
How does William James describe religious experience?
He refers to religious experiences involving the individual’s experience of the ‘divine.’
What have some people suggested about indirect religious experiences?
That they are not necessarily different from ordinary experiences; they are made significant by the person who has the experience and for whom the experience has religious meaning.
Who suggested that there are five recognizable types of religious experience?
Richard Swinburne.
How does Richard Swinburne divide the five types of religious experiences?
He divides them into two groups; the public experience and the private experience.
What type of religious experiences does Richard Swinburne classify as public experiences?
- Ordinary Experiences.
2. Extraordinary Experiences.
What types of religious experiences does Richard Swinburne classify as private experiences?
- Describable in ordinary language
- Non-describable experiences
- Non-specific experiences
What does Richard Swinburne mean by the type ‘ordinary experiences?
Experiences where a person interprets a natural event as having religious significance. (e.g. the beauty of nature of the natural world)
What does Richard Swinburne mean by the type ‘extraordinary experiences?’
Experiences that appear to violate normal understanding of the workings of nature (e.g. Jesus turning water into wine at Cana (John 2) )
What does Richard Swinburne mean by the type ‘describable in ordinary language?
Experiences such as dreams (e.g. Joseph’s dream in the Bible (Matthew 2))
What does Richard Swinburne mean by the type ‘non-describable experiences?’
This refers to direct experiences of God in which God/the wholly other/ the divine is revealed to people. These experiences go beyond human powers of description (e.g. The experiences of Teresa of Avila)
What does Richard Swinburne mean by the type of ‘non-specific experiences?’
These experiences could include things like looking at the world from a religious perspective.
What is a vision?
An event in which God, or something about God, is seen or observed. Visions are usually divided into three types: corporeal, intellectual, and imaginative.
What is meant by an intellectual vision?
This is when what is seen in an experience itself rather than something just being observed.
What is meant by a corporeal vision?
When a figure in the vision is seen as a form or image like a physical person. E.g. Bernadette and Mary
What is meant by an imaginative vision?
This refers to visions that occur in dreams.
What is a mystical experience?
Used in many ways by writers on religious experience. In general it is used to refer to religious experiences where God is revealed directly and the person having the experience is passive.
What are three features of a religious experience of voices?
- The disembodied voice, demonstrating the presence of God
- The voice communicates a revelation from God, so the message is noetic- it reveals something of God and God’s wishes to people
- The voice is authoritative and passes on God’s authority.
What does Noetic mean?
It refers to something which gives knowledge, such as a revelation from God in which God reveals something.
What is the problem with voices?
How do you know that the voice is from God?
What criteria did Teresa of Avila suggest to verify religious experiences?
- Does the religious experience fit in with Christian Church teaching or is it against it?
- Does the experience leave the person feeling at peace with the world and God, rather than distressed?
What did Teresa suggest if the experience did not fit her criteria?
That it was a sign that the experience was not from God, but from the devil.
Why have some criticized the criteria that Teresa of Avila uses?
Just because what a voice says fits in with Church teaching, it in no way proves that the person heard the voice of God rather than a voice in their own mind.
What did William James believe about religious institutions?
Churches for him were secondary to each individual person’s religious experiences. James suggested that religious experiences were events which were ‘solitary’ and in which individuals experienced the divine or God- the religious tradition to which the person belongs (if any) is relatively unimportant.
Why did William James think that religious experiences were the inspiration and the source of religious instituions?
Because religious experiences can so noticeably change people’s behavior, and has great authority for the person, and often has a marked effect in a person’s life.
What is a vision experience?
One in which God or the divine is ‘seen’ or ‘observed’. In this vision information may be revealed.
What is an intellectual vision?
An experience rather than an observation of a physical object.
Give an example of an intellectual vision?
“I was conscious of him, but not with the eyes or the body or the soul did I see him.” - Teresa of Avila
What is a corporeal vision?
Where an object or figure is externally/physically present and some kind of knowledge is gained.
Give an example of a corporeal vision?
Bernadette seeing Mary at Lourdes and being told to uncover a mountain spring.
The prophet Muhammad’s vision of the Angel Jibril
What is an imaginative vision?
Visions that happen in dreams (perhaps giving messages, communicating knowledge)
What is an example of a imaginative vision?
Joseph having a dream telling him to marry Mary and not to outcast her due to her pregnancy.
- The Magi’s dream not to revisit king Herod.
What happens during a voice experience?
Key to these experiences is the communication of knowledge or a message, and the notion that the voice comes from God.
What are some examples of voice experiences?
- Saul “Why do you persecute me”
- Jesus’ Baptism “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”
What is meant by the term Noetic?
It refers to something which gives knowledge, such as a revelation from God.
What are the three features of voices as religious experiences?
- Revelatory: The voice reveals something about God, so the message is noetic- it reveals something of God and God’s wishes to peope
- Authoritative: To those who have the experience, the message communicated has God’s authority.
- Disembodied: The voice appears to have no particular body.
What was Augustine’s experience?
The conversion of Augustine is an unusual example of voices. The voice may have been the natural voice of a child playing (this is uncertain even to Augustine) However, Augustine interprets this to be a means of God communicating with him.
What does Augustine’s experience demonstrate?
That religious experiences may not always be supernatural. They may be natural events that we interpret as having religious significance.
What are the problems with considering both visions and voices as religious experience?
- In what sense are we talking about a ‘vision’
- If it is not a physical object, then in what sense is it a vision?
- If it is a physical object, then why can’t it be seen by everybody every time?
- How can we establish that the voice or vision was from God?
- How are we to interpret it?
- How can we verify/falsify the experience?
What explanations could there be for visions and voices?
Psychological explanations, such as hallucinations, schizophrenia, response to trauma
Physical explanations such as a vitamin deficiency
Drug Induced
Con artists exploiting the faith of others
What did Peter Sutclife do?
He was the Yorkshire Ripper, who believed that God was telling him to kill prostitutes. He was likely schizophrenic.
What did Augustine hear and what did he then do?
He heard a voice in the garden say “Sume, lege” (take a read) and opening the Bible at random, saw the text “Not in chambering and wantonness” etc., which seems directly sent to his address, and laid the inner storm to rest.
Why would people who experience intellectual visions argue that it is not their imagination?
They would argue that they are far too profound to be confused with the imagination.
What is a ‘numinous’ religious experience?
Experiences of awe and wonder in the presence of an almighty and transcendent God. It is an awareness of human nothingness, when faced with a holy and powerful being. The name comes from the latin ‘numen’ which means to bow the head.
