Religious Experiences Flashcards
What are corporeal visions according to Augustine of Hippo?
Corporeal visions are a form of empirical religious experience that comes through the physical sense of sight.
What type of experiences do corporeal visions involve?
Experiences through the five senses: touch, taste, hearing, smell, and sight.
Who is a historical figure known for experiencing corporeal visions?
Joan of Arc.
What did Joan of Arc claim her visions told her?
To bring renewal to the French nation.
What significant event did Joan of Arc lead after her visions?
She led the French to victory in battle against the English in the Hundred Years War.
Who is another example of someone who experienced corporeal visions?
Bernadette Soubirous.
What did Bernadette Soubirous claim to have seen during her visions?
A small young lady dressed in white with a blue waist-belt.
How many visions did Bernadette claim to have experienced?
18 visions.
What did the lady in Bernadette’s vision identify herself as?
The Immaculate Conception, meaning the Virgin Mary.
What miraculous event occurred alongside Bernadette’s visions?
The appearance of a spring of water, which has been the source of around 69 documented miracles.
What are imaginative visions?
Visions experienced in the mind without being perceived by sight.
In which biblical account does Pharaoh have a dream that requires interpretation?
Genesis 41.
What was the warning in Pharaoh’s dream interpreted by Joseph?
Seven years of plenty will be followed by seven years of famine.
What should Pharaoh do in response to the vision about famine?
Store surplus grain.
What significant event does Joseph experience in a dream in the book of Matthew?
An angel tells him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
What prophecy does Matthew say Joseph’s vision fulfills?
Out of Egypt have I called my son.
What are intellectual visions?
Visions where the experiencer claims to see things as they really are without images.
Who is a notable figure associated with intellectual visions?
St Teresa of Ávila.
What does St Teresa describe about her experience of Jesus Christ?
She felt His presence without seeing any form.
What does St Teresa say about the nature of her intellectual vision?
It was an awareness of the presence of the divine.
How does St Teresa describe the illumination from an intellectual vision?
An illumination of the understanding of the soul.
What does mysticism involve according to the Catholic Encyclopaedia?
A religious tendency and desire of the human soul towards an intimate union with the Divinity.
What is a religious experience?
A personal experience of the divine, often described as life-changing.
What did St Thomas Aquinas say about his religious experience?
He stated that all his great learning was like ‘straw before the wind’ compared to the revelation he received.
What percentage of people statistically have a religious experience?
Around 30-40 percent.
Name three types of religious experiences.
- Call experiences
- Conversion experiences
- Numinous experiences
What is a call experience?
An experience where someone feels called by God, often seen in prophets.
What is a conversion experience?
A shift from atheism or one religion to another.
What are near-death experiences (NDEs)?
Experiences reported by individuals who have come close to death, often involving visions and altered states of consciousness.
What is the significance of St Augustine’s conversion experience?
It marked his full conversion to Christianity in 386 AD after a moment of internal conflict.
What phrase did Augustine hear that led to his conversion?
‘Take up and read.’
What is the role of Ambrose in Augustine’s life?
He influenced Augustine’s view of Christianity as a rational religion.
What philosophical traditions influenced Augustine’s conversion?
- Manichaeism
- Neoplatonism
Fill in the blank: St Augustine’s conversion experience is recorded in his _______.
Confessions
What did Augustine struggle with before his conversion?
His sinful lifestyle, particularly sexual desires and ambition for worldly success.
Name two types of mystical experiences.
- Hesychasm
- Miraculous healings
True or False: Religious experiences can be categorized into neat categories.
False
What is a numinous experience?
Experiencing God as the ‘wholly other.’
What are stigmata?
Marks on the body corresponding to those left on Jesus’ body by the Crucifixion.
What is a crisis apparition?
A vision of someone undergoing a crisis, such as severe danger or death.
List two characteristics of near-death experiences.
- Visions of light
- Feelings of unity with the universe
What is the significance of the power and beauty of nature in religious experiences?
It can evoke profound spiritual feelings.
What is prophetic ecstasy?
A state in which prophets prophesy while in an altered mental state.
Explain that Swinburne relates out ordinary sense experience to religious experiences
Having an experience of seeing a chair or a table or listening to a lecture is good evidence that that I did experience a chair and the table and the lecture.
What is the principle of credulity
The way things seem to be is the way things really are.in the absence of special considerations
What’s the first special consideration
The reliability of the claimant
What’s the second special consideration
The truth of the claim
What’s the third special consideration
Difficulty of showing god was parents in the experience
