Religious Experience Quotes Flashcards
Religious experience Definition
Wayne Teasdale
“a direct, immediate experience of the ultimate reality”
Example of Religious Experience
St Theresa
“When he drew out the spear he seemed to be drawing out wiht it, leaving me all on fire with a wonderous love for god”
Communal Conversion
Apostles 2: 1-4
“All of them, we filled wiht the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them”
St pauls conversion on the road to Damascus
“a light from heaven flashed around hi,. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him ‘Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?’”
William James
“Mans extremity is gods opportunity”
Moral conversion
St Augustine
“It was as though the light og confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled”
Mysticism Definition
Bauerschmidt
“Altered state of consciousness…(resulting in) unity with the divine”
Transcendant Mysticism
Rumi
“a blessed sate of evry fibre of an individuals being turning on the axis of the merciful and compassionate creator and sustainer of all things”
Ecstatic Mysticism
St Theresa
“One percieves that the natural heat of the body is perceptibly lessened; the coldness increases, though accompanied with exceeding joy and sweetness”
Unitive Mysticsm
Henry Suso
“entirely lost in god… like a drop of water whcih is poured into a large portion of wine.”
Ineffable Mysticism
St Theres
“I wish i could give a description of at least the smallest part of what i have learnt, but, when i try ro discover a way of doing so, I find it impossible.”
Ineffable Mysticism
William James
“No adequate report of its content can be given in words”
Noetic Mysticism
William James
“There are states of insight into the depths of truth… they are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance”
Transcendant Mysticism
William James
“Mystical states cannot be sustained for long”
Passive Mysticism
William James
“The mystic feeds as if his own will were in obeyance and indeed sometimes as if he were grasped and held by a superior power”
Numinous Definition
Otto- The idea of the Holy
“The deepest and most fundamental element in all strong and sincerely felt religious emotion”
Intensity
Otto
“Sweeping like a gentle tide, prevading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship”
Fear or Awe in God
Otto
“Holy is a category of interpretation (but) contains a quite specific element ot moment which sets it apart from ‘the rational’… and which remains inexpressible”
Challenges-subject
Frank Davies
“With such wide spread epistemic failure, religious experience generally would have to be considered an unreliable sourcr of knowledge”
Challenges-Object
Frank Davies
“One may defeat an experimental claim by showing that on background evidence it is unlikely or even impossible for the alleedged precept to exist or to be as the subject described”
Challenges- Expression of psychological needs
Richard Dawkins- The God of Delusion
“It is the least convincing to anyone.. knowledgeable about psychology. If we are gullible, we dont recognise hallucinations or lucid dreaming for what it is”
Challenges-illusion, childhood insecurities
Sigmand Freud
“Religion is an illusion and it derives ir strength from the fact that it falls in with out instinctual desires”
Strengths- No.of people with religious experiences
Rcuhard Swinburne
“An omnipotent and perfectly good creator will seek to interact with his creatures and, in particular, with human persons capable of knowing him”
Strengths-Principle of credulity
Richard Swinburne
“How things seem to be is a good guide to how things are. If it seems… to a subject that X is present then probably X is present”
