Religious Experience Flashcards
What is religious experience?
when a person believes they have an experience of God or another religious figure - what is common with them is they are an extrordanairy experience
they are viewed as offering a stronger source of knowlege about god
what is william james’ interpretation of religious experience ?
he considered the religious experience to be a distinct class of experience defined by its fruits (outcomes)
an experience could be considered genuinely religious if its effects on a person were seen to be both positive and morally transformatitive
william james have a four fold classification of what an experience looks like:
1) passive
2) ineffable (too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words)
3) noetic (relating to mental activity or the intellect)
4) transient (doesnt last long)
Rudolph Otto
german theologen and philosopher
otto uses the term numen or numinous to describe a sensation that recipients of religious experience feel
numinous is described as being in the presence of something greater than yourself
What are the two aspects of the numinous that otto describes?
1) Mysterium tremendum
- ellement assosiated with the fear and awe of the unknown
2) mysterium fascinans
- associated with feeling of love, mercy and so on
Carolin Franks Davis
she provides a six-fold classification of religious experience in her book the evidential force of religious experience
1) interpretive experiences - the experience is religious by attribution, for example, the recipient is clearly aware that what they are experienceing is something that can be attributed to the divine/God
2) Quasi- sensory - the recipient of the experience may have a physical sensation - hear voice or see vision
3) revelatory experiences - feeling of enlightenment
4) regenerative - goes through change, conversion or renewal of faith
5) numinous - feeling the presence of something greater
6) mystical - feeling of oneness with god, experience is otherworldly
Richard Swinburne
he said there are 5 types of religious experience
- the first 2 are in the public realm, the last 3 are in the private real
1) see god in a public object or scene
2) a breach of natural law - eg jesus turning water to wine
3) a personal experience that can mostly be described through normal language
4) a personal experience that cannot be described in normal language
5) no specific experience but a feel that god is there
what are visions?
a form of revalatory religous experience that gives knowlege about god
there are 3 types:
1) corporeal vision - sees an external figure
- external figure could be a being or merely a brightlight from which the recipitant hears a voice
2) imaginary vision - seen with minds eye
- object is not physically seen, something that stirs the imagination, they can turn into intelectual visions, often occurs during sleep when the mind is less divided by thoughts
3) intelectual vision - knowlege and understanding
- a vision without any object or image
- the intelectual vision becomes supernatural when the person realises it is from god
- felt through the following affects:
1) feeling of love
2) overwelming peace of mind
3) deeper belief in god and its benefits and reward
- pure understanding, not reasoning - a person does not need to work out what a vision means
example of corporeal vision`
In 1858, a sickly 14-yearold girl called Bernadette Soubirous experienced a series of visions of Our Lady and discovered a clear water spring in a cave. • Bernadette witnessed a total of 17 visions in the spring of 1858 and is often also credited with having witnessed an 18th on the evening before she left Lourdes.
Walsingham simular ting
example of imaginary vision
Imaginary visions are produced in the imagination by God or by the angels when a person is either awake or asleep. • According to the Gospel of Matthew, St. Joseph was on several occasions supernaturally instructed in a dream.
(regarding jesus and mary)
example of an intellectual visian
• Julian of Norwich, the 14-15th century mystic, is a particularly good example of someone who received visions. • In The Revelations of Divine Love, she recounted one vivid experience: ‘And he showed me more, a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, on the palm of my hand, round like a ball…And again my mind supplied the answer, ‘It exists, both now and forever, because God loves it. In short, everything owes its existence to the love of God.’
what is a miracle ??
most people who believe in god believe in miracles, many have witnessed them
miracles are evidence and a clear source of knowlege about god
the true meaning is often clouded by people interpretations
a miracle is an event that occurs contrary to natural laws
St thomas Aquinas - miracles
he defined miracles as “those things done by divine power apart from the order usually followed in things”
he identified 3 types of miracles:
1) an event done by god which nature could not do
- the reversal of the course of the sun
2) an event done by god which nature could do
- such as recovering from paralysis/ terminal illness
3) an event done by nature which nature could but without using the principles or forces of nature
- recovering from an illness quickly because of someone praying for them
David Hume - miracles
scottish empiricist
defined mircale as “a transgression of the law of nature by a particular volition of the deity or by interposition of some invisible agent”
-in other words god breaks a law of nature which is considered unbreakable
Richard swimburne: miracles
he acknowlages that it is difficult to outweigh the scientific evidence that could count against a miracle, but he maintains that we do have enough historical evidence to suggest that there is a god and that god can violate the laws of nature
if god has reason to interact with us, he has reason very occasionally to intervene and suspend those natural laws by which our life is controlled but not too often or it would interfere with scientiffic progress and free will
three exaamples of miracles
1) jesus turning water into wine
- this was jesus’ first miracle, during a wedding jesus was attending he called for six large stone jars to be filled with water and turned them into wine
2) in 1995, a man in new dheli, dreamt that Ganesha wanted milk, when the man woke he rushed to the nearest temple to offer him milk and the murti consumed the milk - within hours the news that ganesha was accepting milk offerings spread accross india
3) parting of the red sea, moses after freeing the israelites, parts the red sea and closes it on the egyption army
