Religious experience/religious practice Flashcards
Religious experience/religious practice?
Alister Hardy’s Religious Experience Research Unit in Oxford found a wide variety of religious experiences in Britain, revealing that they often convince individuals that the everyday world is not the whole reality. Religious experiences influence both religious practices (rituals, prayer, fasting) and faith. Rituals can trigger further experiences, and actions like prayer can be personal or communal experiences. Festivals, like Ramadan, celebrate significant religious events, such as the Quran’s revelation.
Faith blends action, trust, and belief, with Aquinas viewing Christian faith as rational but requiring divine revelation beyond reason. Faith can shift from “belief that” to “belief in” through religious experiences, with these experiences strengthening existing faith and influencing expressions of faith.
Relevations?
Revelations allow the divine to become known to humanity, often through religious experiences. These can be direct or indirect, with many religious founders claiming to have received them, such as Muhammad’s revelation of the Quran and Moses’ revelation of the law. Revelations may also involve moments of sudden realization after reflection, focusing more on understanding than specific conversations.
Affirmation?
Religious experiences often serve as proof and affirmation of a belief system, with many religions deriving their authority from significant revelations. These experiences confirm the message being conveyed. For example, the angel Gabriel’s appearance to Muhammad to reveal the Quran shows his role as a channel for Allah’s message. In Christianity, the angelic appearances to Mary and Joseph affirm the incarnation and virgin birth, while the disciples’ experience of the resurrected Jesus reinforces beliefs about life after death and forgiveness through Jesus’ sacrifice.
Promotion of a faith value system?
Religious experiences often reveal ethical standards that guide behavior. For example, Moses is honored as the lawgiver in Judaism, receiving the Ten Commandments, which include moral guidelines and rituals. Muhammad’s revelations form the Quran, and his teachings (Sunnah and Hadith) provide sources for Islamic law. In Christianity, Jesus reveals and clarifies ethical behavior, with his authority confirmed through miracles.
Strengtheneing religious communities?
Community gatherings, such as worship services, provide opportunities for religious experiences and strengthen spiritual connections. The reading and preaching of sacred texts can be seen as a form of religious experience, with scriptures considered the revealed word of God. Examples include the Eucharist in Christianity and the Hajj pilgrimage in Islam, where shared practices create a sense of unity. Momen states, “Ritual is probably the most common source of religious experience for the majority of people.”
The value for the individual?
Religious experiences, both personal and shared, can be valuable for strengthening faith, especially during struggles or doubts. Hearing about others’ experiences, such as the stories of martyrs or divine intervention in difficult situations, can inspire individuals to maintain their faith in adversity. Personal rituals like prayer and meditation can also lead to transformative religious experiences that renew and strengthen one’s belief.
Definitions of Miracles?
Aquinas defines a miracle as something with a divine cause, rather than something simply not understood by humans. Miracles are controversial and debated, with the core issue being what qualifies as a miracle. The term “miracle” comes from the Latin word for wonder, referring to extraordinary events that provoke a sense of awe.
St Thomas Aquinas?
St. Thomas Aquinas believed miracles are not contrary to nature, as God placed the hidden potentials in nature that make them possible. A miracle must have a divine cause and be beyond the power of any created being, as only God can perform miracles. Aquinas identified three types of miracles:
Events where God does something nature cannot, like the sun reversing its course.
Events where God does something nature can do, but out of order, like life after death.
Events where God does something nature typically does but without its usual principles, like instant healing.
In all these, God is actively involved in the event.
David Hume?
David Hume defined a miracle as “a violation of natural law,” specifically a “transgression of a law of nature by a deity’s choice or the intervention of invisible agents.” For Hume, a miracle must break the laws of nature and have a divine cause, such as raising someone from the dead. This definition narrows Aquinas’ broader concept of divine cause by focusing on the violation of natural law, while also expanding the concept by including the possibility of other supernatural agents causing the miracle.
RF Holland?
RF Holland argues that a miracle does not require a violation of natural law or divine intervention. Instead, it is a “remarkable and beneficial coincidence” interpreted religiously, which he calls a contingency miracle. He illustrates this with an example where a train stops just in time to save a child on the tracks, due to the driver fainting, which a religious person might view as a miracle, while a non-religious person sees it as mere luck. According to Holland, an event is only considered a miracle if it is interpreted as such by the individual.
Richard Swinburne?
Richard Swinburne agrees with Hume’s definition of miracles but modifies it. He defines a miracle as “an occurrence of a non-repeatable counter instance to a law of nature,” meaning the event cannot happen more than once and must contradict natural laws. Swinburne also emphasizes that miracles must serve a significant divine purpose, as signs from God. He argues that trivial or purposeless events, like a feather being moved without reason, would not be conEWWsidered miracles. In the Bible, miracles, like those in John’s Gospel, point to a deeper meaning beyond the event itself.
Why believers accept miracles?
Believers accept miracles because they already have faith in God, supported by traditional theistic arguments like the design or cosmological argument. If there is strong historical evidence, accepting a miracle is reasonable, especially if it aligns with God’s motives. Swinburne suggests that natural theology establishes the probability that God will produce a revelation, which miracles can confirm. The nature of God as omnibenevolent also supports belief in miracles, as they can be seen as acts of divine compassion and love for creation.
Sacred writing?
Sacred writings across religions recount supernatural events that support the claims of God’s messengers. In Christianity, the parting of the Red Sea, Jesus’ miracles, and the resurrection are central examples. Some historians, like Carl Becker, argue that miracles can’t be investigated historically because they involve supernatural beings, though events like the resurrection can be cross-referenced with historical data.
In Buddhism, miracles are not seen as signs from God, though supernatural powers appear in mystical practices. Islam accepts the supernatural, but Muhammad rejected performing miracles to validate his authority, with the Quran considered the only true miracle. Religious believers accept miracles based on their sacred texts, viewed as the word of God.
Affirmation of faith?
Many believers claim that only their religion has true miracles, while others have false or no miracles. If God intends to communicate with people, miracles may be accepted as proof. In Islam, Muhammad’s splitting of the moon affirmed his authority, while Christians see Jesus’ resurrection as proof of his divinity and Christianity’s truth. Miracles often affirm the faith tradition, with some seeing them as integral to revelation, like the virgin birth and resurrection of Jesus. Some religious believers argue that miracles in other religions also validate those religions, as each may offer a true response to God.
Personal experience?
Personal miracles, such as those at Lourdes, deeply strengthen individual faith. Since 1858, 69 verified healings have occurred, with the most recent in 1989, confirmed in 2013 after medical investigation. Danila Castelli’s healing from a tumor remains unexplained by science. Believers visit Lourdes with faith in a personal God and the power of prayer. Personal healing testimonies are also common in Charismatic Christianity, where miracles and signs are expected to be part of believers’ lives.
