Religious Experience

Question 1

Definition?

Answer 1

An encounter with god

Eg near death experience, miracles, prayer, visions

Question 2

Definition of a vision?

Answer 2

Where a person sees an object, sounds or figure that isn’t part of normal reality but the person believes they have a religious origin

Question 3

What are the four types of vision?

Answer 3

Group
Individual: dream based
Individual: corporeal
Intellectual

Question 4

What’s a group vision?

Answer 4

Visions seen by more than one person

Virgin Mary appeared 6 times to 3 Shepard children wanting peace in Russia

Question 5

What is a dream based vision?

Answer 5

Seen by only one person, through a dream

Joseph’s vision about Mary’s pregnancy

Question 6

What’s a corporeal vision?

Answer 6

A physical body seen in the real world by one person

The angel appearing to the Shepard’s

Question 7

What’s an intellectual vision?

Answer 7

Visions that bring a message

Wise men warned not to return to king Herod

Question 8

What can the content of visions be?

Answer 8

A message: muhammed receiving the Quran

Religious figure: st Teresa of Avila had a vision of an angel with a spear which pierced her heart

A place: guru nanaks vision of god’s court where he was escorted to god and commanded to drink nectar

Question 9

What’s the definition of a conversion?

Answer 9

A process of change which alters a persons view of the world, in a religious sense

Question 10

What are William james’ features of conversion?

Answer 10

Can be passive- unexpectedly comes upon someone
Or active- specifically seeking a spiritual experience
Can be transforming
Slow or fast
Often involuntary

Question 11

Different types of conversion?

Answer 11

Atheist to faith- CS Lewis

Faith to faith- sundar Singh was a Sikh, had a vision of Jesus and became Christian

Inner self- unifying the inner self. Jung believed religion brought psychological wholeness

Deepening of faith- can have intellectual belief which deepened to come from the heart

Moral- leads to increased moral standing. Giving up drugs to be religious

Question 12

Definition of prayer?

Answer 12

In a basic sense, the activity of speaking to god

Question 13

Who was Teresa of Avila?

Answer 13

She joined a Nunnery at a young age

After a severe illness she had a vision of a wounded Christ which inspired her to develop her prayer life

Question 14

What did Teresa of Avila think?

Answer 14

4 stages of prayer referred to as 7 mansions
She considers the soul to be like a castle that contains mansions

True union can only be achieved by intense concentration and discipline through a life of prayer

Question 15

What are the stages of prayer?

Answer 15

1. In the 4th mansion ‘prayer of consolations’ where human will is captivated by god’s love
2. 5th mansion ‘prayer of simple union’ god placed himself in the persons soul
3. 6th ‘spiritual marriage’ feelings of painful longing, spiritual happiness and visions
4. 7th highest possible state of prayer where the soul has reached union with god

Question 16

What is mysticism?

Answer 16

A union with god
A feeling you can’t put into words- ineffable
Eg Sufism in Islam, Moses in Christianity receiving 10 commandments

Question 17

What are Ed millers characteristics of mystical experiences?

Answer 17

Transcendent- beyond physical world
Ineffable- indescribable 
Noetic- gives you knowledge
Ecstatic- fills you with joy
Unitive- makes you feel whole

Question 18

What are the types of mystical experience?

Answer 18

Unitive- goes from separation from god to connection. Saul to Paul

Transcendent- experience is beyond this world. Sufism

Ecstatic- makes you feel something. Toronto blessing, so full of Holy Spirit people behaved like animals, uncontrolled laughing

Question 19

What did William james believe?

Answer 19

Pragmatist- not a fixed definition of a religious experience
Pluralist- many ways to experience god, his existence is a probability

Question 20

What were William James’ characteristics of a mystical experience?

Answer 20

Passivity- the experience is not caused by you
Ineffable- can’t put into words
Noetic- gives you knowledge
Transient- the experience is short lived but the effect is long lasting

PINT

Question 21

What did Rudolf Otto believe?

Answer 21

You can’t empirically test a religious experience but you can look at the validity through the feeling it makes. The experience of the ‘holy’

He called the holy ‘numinous’ so for him a religious experience was numinous

Question 22

What does mysterium tremendum mean?

Answer 22

A marvellous, terrifying, mystery

How Otto described a mystical experience

Question 23

What happened to Father Yves Dubois?

Answer 23

Had a numinous experience when standing in front of Mary.
Overwhelming certainty of the presence of the mother of god, an awareness of purity, her holiness was frightening
Filled with awe

Question 24

Who challenges religious experience?

Answer 24

Caroline Franks Davis

Question 25

What does Caroline franks Davis argue?

Answer 25

We can never gather any empirical evidence so they are always subjective and can’t be proven objectively
Probability of had causing it is highly unlikely

Question 26

What is Caroline frank davis’ three pronged attack?

Answer 26

Description related challenges- the description is mistaken and an ordinary event is misinterpreted

Subject related challenges- the person reporting is ill or on drugs, prone to exaggeration or lacks scientific understanding

Object related challenges- no way to prove it was caused by god

Question 27

General challenges to religious experiences?

Answer 27

They present an immature view of the world based on blind faith. No empirical evidence
Freud’s psychological challenge: religion is a neurosis and can be reduced to the workings of the mind so a RE is a construct and not objectively real
Religious people aren’t prepared to let them be tested
Drug induced
Placebo, group hysteria
Different religions say different experiences, they can’t all be right
An experience may not have been caused by god
Persinger’s God Helmet: an experience can be caused by sending electrical impulses through your brain

Question 28

Support for religious experiences?

Answer 28

William james believed the effects they caused was evidence enough
We can know the inner beauty of someone like we can experience God who is non-physical
Richard Swinburne: principles of credulity and testimony, reasonable to believe what people say
Different experiences due to cultural beliefs
Their positive impact must make them valid
Test of time, Otto just reworked James’ so it must have been good