religious experience

Question 1

what are the 3 types of visions?

Answer 1

• corporeal
• imaginative
• intellectual

Question 2

what are corporeal visions?

Answer 2

• form of empirical RE
• through our 5 senses
• seeing God through nature

Question 3

what is Joan of Arcs corporeal vision?

Answer 3

• from the age of 12 she experienced visions of angles and saints, with voices
• told her to bring renewal to the french nation
• she later led them to victory against the English

Question 4

what is Bernadettes corporeal visions?

Answer 4

• visions of a small young lady dressed in white
• 18 visions in total
• lady identified herself as the ‘immaculate conception’ (virgin Mary)

Question 5

what are imaginative visions?

Answer 5

• the experiencer has no power to direct the experience, a sign that comes from God
• occur most frequently in dreams

Question 6

what is Josephs dream?

imaginative vision

Answer 6

• angle appears to Joseph in a dream

- tells him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt because King Herod is searching for Jesus in order to kill him

Question 7

what are intellectual visions?

Answer 7

• has no image
• cannot be described using ordinary language
• claim to see things as they really are

Question 8

what is The Numinous?

Answer 8

• RE itself is of God as the Wholly other
• beyond the natural world
• they are ‘sui generis’ (unique, in a class of their own)

Question 9

the Numinous as non-rational?

Answer 9

• beyond the rational and cannot really be explained

- tremendous and fascinating mystery

Question 10

for William James what is mystical experience?

Answer 10

• union with God

- RE are primary and organised, religion is secondary

Question 11

for William James what does experience teach us?

Answer 11

• the world draws its chief significance from a more spiritual universe
• the true end of humanity is union with that higher realm
• prayer/spiritual communication has positive effects

Question 12

what are the 4 criteria for a mystical experience?

Answer 12

• ineffability
• noetic quality
• transiency (aren’t for long)
• passivity (beyond control)

Question 13

what is ineffability?

Answer 13

• cannot be described in other words

Question 14

what is noetic quality?

Answer 14

• they give rise to knowledge

- learn something as a result