Religous Experience

Question 1

Corporeal Visions

Answer 1

Description:
These are empirical in that they are supernatural experiences that are mediated through the physical senses.
The visionary sees the figure/object in the same way as someone would see a chair.

For example:
18 visions of Mary that Bernadette of a Lourdes experienced.

Question 2

Imaginative Visions + Example

Answer 2

These are visions which are mediated through ‘the mind’s eye’, not through physical sight.
They often take the form of dreams.

E.g:
-Joseph’s dream in which he was told that Mary was pregnant through Holy Spirit

Question 3

Intellectual Experiences

Answer 3

In this type of vision there is no image, but the subject of the experience claims to ‘see’ things as they really are.
These are mystical visions. They are hard to understand as they defy description. They enlighten the soul.
E.g:
Theresa of Avila who couldn’t
explain her visions

Question 4

Intellectual Vision Quotation

Answer 4

I saw nothing with the eyes of the body, nothing with the eyes of the soul’ -Teresa

Question 5

What is immaculate Conception?

Answer 5

The Catholic doctrine of the conception of the Virgin Mary in the womb of her mother, free from ‘original sin’ through the merits of her son lesus Christ. The term is also used as a way of referring to Mary.

Question 6

What does Aquinas say about Religious Experience?

Answer 6

He says Religious Experience makes everything feel like “Straw before the wind”

-This means that once you’ve had a RE nothing else matters (teachings, Theories etc) because you’ve went to the PRIMARY source (God) Rather than SECONDARY SOURCES (Teachings, Church etc.)

Question 7

Numerous Experiences: Otto

Answer 7

. The following are key ideas in Otto (Protestant Theologian 1869-1937):

•What makes a religious experience religious?

~ “Mysterious Tremendous and
Fascinating”

Otto said that the divine is
recognised as having three main qualities:
1. A mysterious quality (God is unknowable)
2.God is recognised as being of ultimate importance “holy, holy, holy is the lord’
3.God has a quality that’s both attractive and dangerous

Question 8

Otto: Idea of the holy

Answer 8

The Idea of the Holy (title of his book) on the nature of religious experience.
• The word holy means ‘other than’, ‘separate from.

• It is an attempt to describe the sense some people have of a reality totally outside and beyond their experience of themselves and the world.
Isaiah’s experience at his call gave rise to his reference to God throughout his prophetic ministry as ‘the Holy One of Israel’

“holy, holy, holy is the Lord almighty”

Question 9

What does Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans? -OTTO

Answer 9

Mysterium:
-Can be experienced not understood

Tremendum:
-Overwhelming experience of God

Fascinas:
-Attractive nature of desiring God