religious experience - mysticism

Question 1

rudolf otto and mysticism

union with God

Answer 1

• contrast of the numinous and ordinary experience
• concerns the apprehension of truths beyond the intellect
• mystical experience is the most intense form of rel experience
• experience of UNION with a divine God –> different with Buddha, who had mystical experience bug enlightenment released him from any concept of God
• concerning contemplation: self surrender and contemplation to obtain unity with a deity

Question 2

Happold and mystical experiences

Answer 2

• UNION
• soul mysticism: union with one’s soul, st john of the cross, hinduism, brahman, mukti J of norwich (christian may say soul discovery leads to rel ex of God and hindu may say soul is at the end of the mystical journey
• God mysticism: Union with God, soul with God during experience
• nature mysticism: W james says people feel at one with nature and experience cosmic consciousness, can lead to God mysticism
• nature mysticism: becoming one with nature, means uniting with God as God is immanent

Question 3

W james and mysticism, describing rel experience

Answer 3

• Varieties of rel experience –> concerned with the fruits of experience and the lasting effects of these fruits as evidence for the experience, pragmatist
• rel experience is:
• ineffable: unable to be explained in everyday language, and may contain poetic or metaphorical language (St T and soul is castle with many rooms)
• noetic: knowledge of God or a spiritual reality is gained through intuition or insight, as opposed to knowledge gained by sense experience or reasoning
• transient: short lived, 30 mins - 2 hours according to james
• passivity: mystical controlled by ‘other’, automatic handwriting, st T levitations when nuns tried to hold her down
• rel experiences due to self mastery and deep contemplation, includes prayer and mediation, fasting and ritual –> dervish

Question 4

stace and describing mystic experience

Answer 4

• EXTROVERTIVE: the plurality of all things is transfigured into a single living entity, non sensual and non intellectual union with the divine
  ‘leave behind name and form…reaches that divine person beyond the beyond’ upanishad
• INTROVERTIVE: person loses identity as a separate individual and merges into divine unity –> there is only existence
• only non sensuous and non intellectual, only the soul can experience

Question 5

julian of norwich and rel experience

gendered language, epistemological distance, hazelnut image

Answer 5

• on her death bed and experienced visions and healed
• was told she had genuine spiritual revelations despite disbelief
• became an anchoress
• opposed patriarchal language of the church –> saw God as an all powerful and mighty father, but also a tender loving mother
• ‘as truly as God is our father, so truly is God our mother’
• aim to be one substance with God, epistemological distance is temporarily gone
• only an experience, and this knowledge is gone quickly
• image of the hazelnut: hazel nut sized totality of creation in the palm of her hand in a mystical experience

Question 6

St Teresa of Avila and mysticism

Answer 6

• sent to the convent while young by her father
• became ill while meditating and became paralysed and never returned to full health
• convinced her body was lifting into the air and she would ask her fellow nuns to hold her down
• kept a record of experiences and analysed them, and applied a three fold test on them to ensure authenticity with rel teaching
• prayer of quiet, prayer of union, ecstasy (loss of control) and spiritual marriage, one with God
• soul and castle: innermost part is where God dwells in the soul, and soul cannot enter the sanctuary of its own accord but is invited by god, leading to spiritual marriage

Question 7

st john of the cross and gendered language for God

Answer 7

• the dark night of the soul
• medieval mystics used romantic language, gender fluidity
• it is illogical to refer to God as both simultaneously, but this is because it transcends us
• songs of songs: God is a lover

Question 8

muslim sufism and mysticism

union with God and lack of self

Answer 8

• ecstatic state of mystic can produce blasphemous/extreme due to a loss of self identity when close to God –> suspicious
• this is the goal of the sufi: devotional practices and higher levels of an ecstatic state lets the sufi realise a condition in which they are in direct communion with God, individual personality moves away and sufi feels his soul absorbed into God
• mevlevi: Rumi (13th cent sufi poet) conceived dance, music and poetry as a way to get closer to god
• whirling dervishes, Sema dance: spiritual ascent through mind and love to a state of perfection
• love and be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination

Question 9

realism and anti realism

Answer 9

• realist: did/didnt happen (Hume), binary
• anti realist: truth is not binary but a flow, subjective
• philosophers do not like as having more than 1 truth does not allow for a simple proof –> 2+2 cannot be 3 ever?
• theologians: like as it gives space for religion

Question 10

mystical experiences fail to prove God exists

Answer 10

• subjective, alternative explanations
• cannot be described, existence of God limited to the mind, in intellectu
• science can explain, psychological
• valid proof to the person who experienced it only
• ottos exp of numinous works for abrahamic/hindu/sikh but not buddism with no God -> he has used what he knows/believes to explain
• not all experiences are fearful with God

Question 11

mystical experiences prove God exists

Answer 11

• james: fruits can indicate God
• commonality among religions, pluralism
• beating heart of religion, no rel without them, so they must have some truth

Question 12

william james and mystical experience

Answer 12

• 4 marks of mysticism: ineffable, new form of understanding/noetic, transitory/quick, passivity: something bigger than yourself leads the experience

Question 13

more scholars and mysticism

Answer 13

• second vatican council declared that mysticism was part of the holiness and is available to all believers
• hans kung: catholic theologian, mysticism is closing the senses to the outside, dissolving of the self –> reaction against ordered religion, internal and a personal side of the religion
• Happold: mysticism of love and union = longing to escape from lonliness and be accepted –> however, we are always trying to get back to God, and have a desire for something bigger than ourselves