RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE Flashcards
What is religious experience?
A subjective experience interpreted in a religious framework
The concept originated in the 19th century as a defence against the growing rationalism of western society
St Augustine classified visions into 3 categories in De Genesi ad Litteram. What are they?
Corporeal
Intellectual
Imaginative
Where do imaginative visions take place?
Through the minds eye
Often are dreams
What does the experiencer experience in an imaginative vision?
No power to direct the experience
Sign that comes from God
Given to the experiencer without being perceived by the normal processes of sight
Examples of imaginative vision
Matthew: Joseph’s dream where the angel appeared and told him that Nary was pregnant through the Holy Spirit
Genesis: Pharaoh warned about the seven year famine, leading him to put Joseph in charge
How are corporeal visions experienced?
Empirically verified- God is seen through/by means of the object like nature
Shown through the senses (sight)
Seen in the same way one would see a chair- light from the object strikes the retina of the eye
Examples of corporeal vision
At Fatima Mary appeared to the 3 seers, revealing a 3 part secret (hell, ww2 and unknown)
Bernadette at Lourdes heard the sound of rushing wind and saw a dazzling light and white figure in a grotto. Asked to return to the grotto every day for a fortnight- la Quinzaine sacree. 5m pilgrims
Bernadette at Lourdes quotes
A dazzling light, and a white figure
A chapel should be built and a procession formed
The three seers at Fatima quotes
If my requests are granted … there will be peace
Wheee the souls of poor sinners go
Intellectual visions
No image
The person claims to ‘see things’ the way they really are
Enlighten the soul and are hard to describe
How are intellectual visions spiritually illuminating?
They can be about the world, Holy Spirit, god, trinity
The highest form of mystical union with God
Example of intellectual vision
St Teresa of Ávila
Spanish mystic
Saw Jesus as he really was, seeing his ‘presence’ and not his form
The light of an intellectual vision is an illumination of the understanding of the soul; her soul met the clear knowledge of Jesus
St Teresa of Ávila quotes from her autobiography
I saw nothing with the eyes of the body, nothing with the eyes of the soul
There is a light not seen, which illumines the understanding
Who is Rudolf Otto?
German Lutheran theologian
Most famous work is ‘the idea of the holy’
Key ideas of Otto
An experience is the basis of all genuine religion
It is outside our everyday experience; it’s unique
It is a sense of wholly other
The emphasis is on Gods transcendence
What is, for Otto, an experience of the numinous?
It refers to a presence and reality that can’t be understood by the senses or intellect
Sui generis- religious experience is of God as the wholly other which can’t be grasped
What is the numinous?
Comes from the Latin Numen referring to a deity or spirit
Means ‘relating to the power of a deity’
Common to all religious experience according to Otto
What does sui generis mean?
Unique/of its own kind
What is, for Otto, the idea of the holy?
‘Holy’ means separate or other than
Attempts to describe the sense of a reality outside one’s experience of themselves and the world
Otto: what does Moses’ experience illustrate about the holy?
REs are encounters with the holy
The holiness of God is a central feature of the call narrative of Isaiah too who sees a vision of God enthroned in the Jerusalem temple surrounded by seraphim who call to each other ‘holy, holy, holy is the lord’
What is significant about Isaiah’s experience?
The threefold repetition (trisagion) is the strongest form of emphasis used in OT Hebrew
Gods essence is holiness and in the face of this Isaiah feels impure until one of the seraphim touches his lips with a burning coal to forgive his sins
Exodus quote
The angel of the lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush
Otto: what is mysterium tremendum et fascinans?
Latin
Means fearful and attractive mystery
Expresses the complex nature of numinous experiences
Focuses on God as transcendent. God is so far removed from humanity that we approach him with dread, awe and fear
Example of mysterium tremendum et fascinans
Peter watched Jesus produce a miraculous catch of fish and his immediate response was to understand his own inadequacy: ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man’ (Luke)
What is mysterium?
Something removed from humanity
Can be experienced but not understood
Makes us wonder
What is tremendum?
Gods overwhelming energy
Creates a sense of understanding our absolute dependence on God as we are nothing
What is fascinans?
The attractive nature of an experience creates a desire for a relationship with God
Makes us aware we need salvation
Who is William James?
American philosopher and psychologist
The varieties of religious experience
Is religious experience primary or secondary?
James
Primary
Organised religion is a response to REs
What do mystical experiences reveal about God?
He is temporal and finite as he interacts with us in time
James: ineffability
Private experience
Makes sense to other mystics
Can’t be described
Only negative language can describe it
What is the true purpose of humanity for James?
Union with the higher universe
The point of mystical experiences is that God meets the individual ‘on the basis of his personal concerns’- each individual receives from god uniquely
James: passivity
Mystical experience control the person
They’re unable to direct what happens
Results in unusual behaviour e.g. Teresa of Ávila elevated
James: noetic
The experience gives insights into genuine truths
They give intuitive knowledge rather than intellectual
James: transient
Mystical experiences last no more than 1-2 hours
Hard to reproduce the memory
Life changing
How does James value drug induced states?
A mystical experience
Special state of consciousness
Who is Walter Stace?
British philosopher
Mysticism and philosophy
What is mysticism for Stace?
A non sensuous and non intellectual union with the divine
In its highest form the senses cease to work and the rational intellect (the conscious ‘I’) ceases to work, replaced by pure consciousness
Nothing to do with the occult, visions or auditory experiences
For Stace, are visions and voices mystical experiences?
No as a vision includes visuals and voices include audio- sensuous instead
What’s a mystic?
Someone who’s had a mystical experience
Stace: introvertive
The ultimate mystical experience
Senses are totally suppressed. Pure consciousness
No awareness of the world- non spatial and non temporal
No intellectual function
Ordinary human consciousness replaced with mystical consciousness
The introvertive mystical consciousness is ineffable peace acc. To the Hindu Mandukya
Ineffable
Stace: extrovertive
All things are one
Normal objects are seen with physical senses but are transfigured by a ‘unity that shines through’
Sense of the one as life in all things
Half way house to introvertive experiences
Who does Stace think God is ?
Either a mystery or nothing at all
James claims there is a fine line between mysticism and insanity. If we can’t describe REs does this mean they didn’t happen?
Religious response
Ineffability is a characteristic in all REs
Just because they are hard to investigate does this mean they’re false?
Mystical experiences are elitist. Rare and extraordinary so as to be unbelievable
Religious response
Vatican II says that mysticism is a gift open to all but only a few are prepared to engage in the discipline and effort required
Freud claimed visions were just illusions made by subconscious fears and desires. E.g weeping Madonna in Sicily. They’re symptoms of immaturity or mental illness
Science
Jung argues that people may wish them or find them comforting but this doesn’t disprove them
Religious experiences can be stimulated through devices like Persinger’s God helmet. Its stimulation of the temporal lobe is similar to REs
God can choose to communicate with someone via TLE or drugs
New Johns Hopkins university research found that an encounter with God even if drug fuelled made people less afraid of death and improved their outlooks
Who is Swinburne?
British philosopher
Swinburne rejects attempts to prove gods existence through…
Logic
He bases his arguments in the probability of Gods existence
What is Swinburnes principle of testimony?
In the absence of special considerations what a person thinks they’re seeing is what they’re seeing
How believable is someone’s own experience
What is Swinburnes principle of credulity?
In the absence of special considerations what a person claims they’re seeing is what they’re seeing
How believable is what somebody says they’ve seen
Swinburne principle of testimony quote
If it seems to a subject that x is present then probably x is present
Swinburne principle of credulity quote
The experience of others are (probably) as they report them
Special considerations to Swinburnes principles
The person has lied before
The claim seems unlikely
It’s hard to prove god was present
There are other ways of accounting for the experience such as the god helmet
What are Swinburnes rejection of the special considerations?
Lying before doesn’t mean they’re lying now
Seeming unlikely doesn’t mean it’s not true
God underpins everything- he could provide the experience no matter how it’s given
Strengths of Swinburnes principles
James: transformation in lifestyle is a powerful argument for the genuineness of RE
Cumulative argument: they’re proof of god. It strengthens and is strengthened by the arguments for the existence of god
Weaknesses of Swinburnes principles
Leap of faith- moves from normal experiences to metaphysical encounters
As REs are private they can’t be investigated by science or confirmed by others
There’s still no proof god is the answer
What does non intellectual mean?
The I of the rational intellect is replaced by pure consciousness
Mystical experience is…
The human soul moving towards an intimate Union with the divine
What is entheogen?
Generating/becoming the divine from within- drugs like LSD that are known to generate REs
Isaiah quote
Holy holy holy is the lord of hosts
Quote from Kenneth Grahame in the wind in the willows
Afraid? Of Him? O, never… and yet … I am afraid
James quote
‘Cosmic consciousness’ in which ‘the universe is composed of … a loving presence’
Stace quote from Mysticism and philosophy
Everything appeared to have an “inside”’
What are REs value for religious faith?
Abraham, life changing
James- REs can bring about a zest for life. People can feel a ‘lyrical enchantment’. Swinburne- they can be life changing; produce hope, courage, love
REs have been the cause of the founding of several religions so are the basis for faith- Abraham’s RE confirmed his faith. He believed god would he faithful to his promises
What are REs value for religious faith?
Pilgrimage, consciousness
Places associated with REs are sites of pilgrimage. The faith of those who visit these sites is enriched
James- There’s more to consciousness than what we believe in everyday life. Modern science points to layers beneath what we observe with our senses- multi layered consciousness with REs occurring in one of those deeper layers?
Who is H. H. Price?
Welshman
What is Prices belief in?
Interested because the believer can hope for benefits from that belief. It’s also disinterested as it’s a good thing in its own right that god exists
REs will confirm religious faith from any religious tradition; people then claim their religion holds the truth
What is Price’s belief that?
Merely accepting a proposition
It’s possible to believe that god exists but it doesn’t carry any sense of value that we’d find in belief in
