religious experience - visions Flashcards
what makes a religion experience religious
- God: fear, union, peace
- intervention
- leads to knowledge that couldnt be gained in another way
- improbable events happen why
- cant be explained by science
- types: dream, healing, enlightenment, special revelation, seeing God
- impossible made possible by God
- outside normal experience
- ineffible
- spiritual
william james and categorizing religious experience (common core)
type of experience, what type of union
- all apparent differences between religious + rel experience –> common core (all religions are seeing the world in the same way, james is aligned with pluralism)
- they are experiences are experiential, like perception
- arent connected to any particular mode of sense perception
- person feels immediately aware and connected to God
- awareness of God blocks everything out temporarily, distinction between person and experience blurs (mystical union)
william james’ ideas of what a religious experience is
- heart of religious experience is an immediate sense of the reality of the unseen –> contrast what we are aware of in a rel ex with the usual ‘visible world’
- awareness of the unseen may be inarticulate, beyond even an ability to think in any usual terms about it (conceptualization comes after)
-genuine nature relies on the ‘fruits of experience’ –> need to have a lasting impact on life
5 fruits of rel exp according to james
james: a religious attitude is ‘solemn, serious and tender’
1. visible world is part of a spiritual universe which gives it meaning
2. a harmonious relation with the spiritual universe is our true purpose in life
3. harmony enables a spiritual energy to flow into and affect us in the visible world
4. new zest which adds itself like a gift to life
5. an assurance of saftey a feeling of peace and in relation to others a preponderance of loving emotions
william james’ view on religion
- all religion points to the feeling that there is something wrong with us
- corrected by becoming in touch with a higher power
- realising this is connected to an awareness of being in touch with something more in rel ex
what is pluralism (and others)
- all gods are the same
- all religions are the same and equal
- skeptic: is this not psychology, humans all have the same need and choose religion for this
- exclusivist: only some are genuine
- some are somewhat right (inclusivist)
richard swinburne on religious experience
why does he believe religious experiences occur
- apologist, philosophy today shows God exists
- argues that if God exists he would want to interact with his creation and in particular, human beings capable of knowing him –> defines rel ex in the existence of God
5 categories:
- exper through a common public sensory object (icons, sunsets)
- exp through an unusual public sensory object (burnign bush)
- esxp through a private object describable in sensory language
- exp of God through a private object that cannot be described in normal sensory language (feeling/seeing something that cannot be described)
- exp not mediated by any sensory object (nothing is seen or heard, a point beyond exp)
ecstasy of St Teresa of Avila
- mystical vision experience
- vision is transient (temporary) –> ‘that i could not wish to be rid of it’
- encounter with an angel, with sexual descriptors
- links to people think about God and the ideas about him (relationship with God can be anthropically translated into the devotion of human lust)
visions and ninian smart’s definition
- described religious experiences as involving ‘some kind of perception of the invisible world..or a perception that some visible person or thing is a manifestation of the invisible world’
- the perception of the invisible world can take the form of a vision
things reported in visions from religious people
- religious figures, bernie and mary
- places, nanak and heaven
- the future, john and revelation
- fantastic creatures, ezekiel
- an event in which there is a message, clear or unclear, peters vision
corporeal visions
the actual figure is really present (external) but seen or appreciated in a different way from usual; there may be something seen or heard for which there is no explanation or that others present are not able to see (internal)
imaginative visions
- a person is imaginatively aware of a figure they cannot see
- the experience is beyond their control and is accompanied by a feeling of holiness
- usually short and may give way to intellectual visions
intellectual visions
- person becomes aware of an abstraction or concept, such as the essence of a soul or the grace of God
- may be accompanies by a similar imaginative or sensual experience such as a persistent light, an inner peace or a call towards religious life
group or individual visions
- group: visions seen by more than one person (angels of mons 1914)
- individual: bernie and mary @ lourdes (18 occasions)
teresa of avila intellectual vision descriptions
jesus christ:
- intellectual: seeing with other sight, ‘i saw nothing with the eyes of the body’
- not seeking the experience, passive, ‘i was extremely afraid at first, and did nothing but weep’
