Theme 4 (Religious Experience) Flashcards
What is a religious experience?
+ David Hay quotes & meaning
Some form of encounter with God
+ “everyday world is not the whole of reality;there is another dimension to life”
+ “affects the person’s view of the world, it alters behaviour and changes attitudes”
- describing the divine
- religious experience usually changes the person from that point on
What is a vision?
+ what are the 6 types of vision?
When a person sees or hears something that they believe is supernatural in origin. Can happen when they are awake or dreaming.
1) Sensory:where external objects/sounds or figures convey knowledge & understanding to a recipient
2) Intellectual: brings the recipient knowledge & understanding
3) Individual
4) Dream-based
5) Group
6) Corporeal: physical vision
What are 6 examples of visions?
+ Angel of the Mons (WW1 troop saw a vision of St George)
+ St Bernadette (18 visions of Virgin Mary)
+ John’s Vision (saw strange creatures in the Book of Revelation which revealed how the end of time would occur)
+ Wise Men (warned not to return to Herod after visiting Jesus)
+ Julian of Norwich (saw God within objects around her)
+ Teresa of Avila (vision of an Angel)
Vision Examples Quotes
“in the centre, around the throne, were four living creatures” (Bible)
“having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country” (Bible)
“I saw that (our Lord) is to us everything which is good and comforting for our help” (Julian of Norwich)
“I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a little fire” (Teresa of Avila)
What is a conversion?
+ what are examples of individual and communal conversions?
(What did William James say are the 4 key features of religious conversions?)
Change of state from one form of life to another. It alters how one sees the world or one’s personal place in it
+ I: Saul’s conversion to Christianity & later becoming St Paul (Road to Damascus)
+ C: Disciples being filled with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost & converting others to Christianity
1) Conversion can be passive (happens unexpectedly) or active (seeked out)
2) Completely transforms the recipient’s life
3) Can be slow or fast (e.g F= Saul to Paul & S= going to Church consistently for many years)
4) Some people may battle against conversion until they finally ‘give in’
What are the usual 5 key reasons for conversions occuring including examples?
+ quotes
1) Atheist to faith
e.g C.S Lewis converted to Christianity
2) Faith to faith
e.g Saul converting to Christianity from Judaism
3) Deepening of faith
e.g strengthening faith in adulthood after following religious values of parents
4) Intellectual conversion
e.g studying a religious text and agreeing with its contents
5) Moral conversion
e.g Gangster Tommie Scott became a Christian in prison
+ “when I received the book, a guidance that would explain everything to me” (Yusuf Islam)
+ “I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation” (Wesley)
Ninian Smart religious experience quote & meaning
“Consider visions of the Prophet Muhammad, the conversion of Paul, the enlightenment of Buddha”
+ religious experiences have allowed for the development of religions
What is mysticism? examples?
+ how do some people describe mysticism experiences?
feeling of complete union with God or feeling completely absorbed by the presence of God
e.g Pentecost, Darshan & Heaven
+ some speak of a mystical ascent & that the journey towards God is like a staircase
+ individual can transcend their own mundane reality & gain unity with the ultimate reality
+ some compare it to darkness & light as they move from the unknown to known
Ed Miller mysticism quote & meaning
+ What are the 5 characteristics of mysticism experiences according to Miller? (TUNIE)
“the pursuit of a transcendent, unitive experience with the absolute reality”
- mysticism experiences enable you to get a oneness & unity relationship w the Divine
+ Transcendent: recipient has no concept of time or space
+ Unitive: spiritual soul connecting w God
+ Noetic: conveys a deep religious truth
+ Ineffable: not easily explained via language
+ Ecstatic: recipient is filled w peace and joy
What did Miller argue are the 3 types of mysticism experience?
+ an example of each?
1) Transcendent mysticism: lie beyond realm of physical senses
e.g Sufism (from Islam) focuses on trying to develop a transcendent mystical union w Allah through meditation, dance & poetry
2) Ecstatic mysticism: provides an overwhelming feeling of bliss & peace
e.g Teresa of Avila “accompanied with exceeding joy and sweetness”
3) Unitive mysticism: provides a complete oneness with the divine
e.g Henry Suso “entirely lost in God, has passed into him, and become one spirit with him”
William James mysticism quote & meaning?
+ What are the 4 characteristics of mysticism experiences according to James? (PINT)
” the supernaturalism and optimism to which they would persuade us may.. be the truest insights into the meaning of this life”
- beyond the realm of empirical science & they may provide the truth & meaning behind the world
+ Passivity: God has overtaken the body of the recipient “as if he were grasped and held by superior power”
+ Ineffability: Experience is individual and cannot be explained easily “it cannot be imparted or transferred to others”
+ Noetic: gives the recipient insight into faith
“ there are illuminations, revelations, full of significance and importance”
+ Transiency: experiences are short but overwhelming and life changing
What is prayer? examples?
+ what are the pros & cons of prayer?
activity of speaking & communicating with the Divine or God e.g Darshan, Lent, hymns, communal worship
+ closer connection to God
+ doesn’t require structure
+ doesn’t require teaching
+ allows you to ask for forgiveness
- prayers may not be fulfilled
- hard to know if you’ve done it right
- not learning anything new about faith
- may be used for selfish means
Who was Teresa of Avila & her religious backstory?
+ what did she create & why? (include quote)
- born in 1515 in Spain
- family encouraged to take religion seriously so she became a Carmelite nun
- she was left paralysed for 3 years after a severe illness & became disillusioned w prayer & religious practices
- she had a vision of the ‘sorely wounded Christ’ causing her to write her works on prayer
Created 4 stages of prayer:
+ to inspire people to pray
+ prayers are not usually answered instantly & we should invest long eras of prayer into each stage before becoming advanced
“cause sounds to cover so sublime a blessing”
What do each of the rooms in Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle analogy represent? (include quotes)
1-3) Allows individual to become closer to God but not totally united
4) Prayer of Quiet “sleep of the faculties”
- captivated by love
- mystical
- peace & spiritual delight
5) Prayer of Simple Union
-so powerful & cannot doubt God’s existence
“God implants himself in the interior of the soul”
6) “Spiritual Marriage”
-visions, spiritual ecstasy & feelings of painful longing
- want to spend every moment w Divine “spouse”
7) “Mystical marriage”
- highest possible state of prayer
- complete unity
- awareness, knowledge & understanding of Divine
What is the importance of the Interior Castle analogy?
- God is always near “Spirit of God dwells within you” (Bible)
- prayer is crucial
- harm comes to us when we fail to realise God is near
- prayer demands intense effort (perseverance & detachment)
- necessary in order to progress on your spiritual journey
What is Teresa of Avila’s Garden Analogy & 4 stages?
- soul is the garden
- water is God
1) Watering garden with a bucket (lots of effort & God is far away)
2) Watering wheel (God is becoming more effective but isn’t yet)
3) Stream (can paddle & interact with God)
4) Rain (surrounded by God & becomes united)
What are the first two stages of prayer in the Garden Analogy?
+ how does the analogy link to these forms of prayer?
(how may these stages impact the worshipper?)
1) Mental prayer
- withdraw our minds from outside world
- focus on seeking penitence & meditating upon Jesus’ sacrifice
+ slow and painful “drop by drop”
+ we can draw up understanding of God
+ well may be dry & we must wait for more water (understanding)
+ lowest & least effective
(may feel persuaded to keep going or want to give up)
2) Prayer of Quiet
- aided by God in drawing of understanding
- become detached & fewer distractions
- begin sanctification
+ much less labour now required
+ burden is much less (God is doing more)
(feelings of hope)
Garden Analogy for prayer quotes
1) “drop by drop”
2) “contact with the supernatural”
“ soul becomes recollected”
“ soul begins to lose desire for earthly things”
3) “Lord’s granting it graces”
“The soul’s humility is now greater”
4) “fourth stage is a trance. Union with God is complete the senses stop and consciousness of the body fades” (Lapointe)
What are the last two stages of prayer in the Garden Analogy?
+ how does the analogy link to these forms of prayer?
(how may these stages impact the worshipper?)
3) Imperfect Union
- leave our soul open to understanding
- almost complete union
- state of perfect joy
- conscious
+ Lord takes over our work & becomes a gardener himself
(feelings of progress & stronger connection
benefitting from knowledge of God
may begin preaching to others)
4) Perfect Union
- union w God like fire & iron (iron will change & glow)
- goal of mystical prayer
- no longer conscious
- very brief
- feeling of lifted to Heaven
- stage, time, memory & imagination melt away
+ no effort or strain
(feelings of joy & happiness
strong faith
may preach to others
acceptance of death?)
Who was Rudolf Otto?
+ what concept did he create?
(quote?)
- Protestant theologian
- believed mystical experiences were beyond the realm of rational thought & empirical senses
- first to focus on feelings of recipients
- experiences are experiencing the nature of God (but this has different meanings to different individuals)
+ numinous: supernatural divine power
(“Holiness- ‘the holy’… it is complex, it contains a quite specific element or ‘moment”
What is Otto’s concept of the numinous in terms of:
1) rational & non-rational decisions?
2) Irrational & rational beings?
3) seeking out the spiritual?
4) profound experience with great intensity?
(quote?)
1) R: actions that make sense in the physical world
NR: things that cannot be explained by rational thought
2) I: being with a lack of sanity
NR: stable being who wants an experience that is not definable in rational terms
3) humans seek out the spiritual (particularly the numinous) as part of their non-rational nature - explains fascination w superheroes
4) - numinous is the most fundamental religious experience
- recipient will continue in this mood until experience dies away
“ from the depths of the soul within spasms and convulsions”
What were Otto’s 3 categories of numinous?
Mysterium: numinous experience is felt as the ‘wholly other’. Completely outside normality & will cause fascination
Tremendous: the powerfulness of God will be overwhelming & will create a sense of unease & humility in us
Fascinans: recipient will feel mercy & gracefulness of God
What was Buber’s ideas of the numinous?
+ quote?
Personal relationship with the numinous, God
Relationships have two levels:
1) I-It: world as we know it & sensory experience
2) I-Thou: gaining a truly personal relationship (cannot be explained)
+ “God is the Eternal Thou, so he can reveal Himself on a personal level”
What was Smart’s ideas of the numinous?
Distinguished between numinous & mysticism
N= awareness of different experience w a deity, dependency on something external & is sudden and unexpected
M= focuses on union w divine, focuses on the internal & involves extensive preparation
What was Kierkegaard’s ideas of the numinous?
- saw faith as a miracle
- numinous could be a personal experience
- a person can only know God though a ‘leap of faith’
What was Schleirmacher’s ideas of the numinous?
+ quotes?
Religious experiences is a primary emotion not a feeling
- everyone has consciousness of the divine
- these emotions are deeper than reason & are ‘self-authenticating’
- experiences are not numinous though
- theology arises afterwards as people reflect on their experiences
+ experiences are a “source of power that is distinct from the world”
+ religion is a “sense and taste of the infinite”
What are the strengths & weaknesses of Otto’s argument?
+ first philosopher to focus on the emotional aspect or religion & the ‘feelings’ of recipients
+ his 3 categories have universal appeal and acknowledge the differences between individual’s experiences
+ inclusivity of all religions
+ does fit with visions
- numinous is subjective and difficult to verify
- may overlook intellectual and ethical aspects of religion
- potential for misinterpretation as something unrelated to the divine e.g awe or fear
- feelings cannot be described & are very vague
- his account does not mention the nature of God
- does not fit some other well-documented types of religious experiences e.g prayer
What are some strengths & weaknesses of religious experience?
+ Ed Miller (feeling and connecting with God/divine)
+ No other explanation e.g miracles at Lourdes
+ Explains rapid conversion
+ Teresa- supports individuals to pray
- Difficult to describe
- Kant (they are a result of drugs)
- Prayers are often not answered
- Not all religious experiences are positive
- Not all have been healed at Lourdes
- Atheist (God may not exits so experiences may not be real)
- May be purely for fame/money
What are Caroline Franks-Davis’ challenges to religious experiences?
+ examples of religious experiences that would be challenged by these arguments?
1) Description-related
- any event described must have empirical evidence to support it
- must be rejected if it contradicts everyday life
+ St Bernadette’s vision
2) Subject-related
- recipient may be an unreliable source as they may be suffering from mental illness or delusional due to substance abuse
- they are not in a position to understand & convey their experience
+ Teresa of Avila’s stages of prayer
3) Object-related
- likelihood of having experienced a God-like figure is so unlikely
- no more likely than seeing a mythical creature so why do we believe it
+ Pentecost occuring
What is Richard Swinburne’s Principal of Credulity in support of religious experiences?
- the religious experience should provide good grounds for the recipient that the belief in God does exist
- this belief is justified unless someone offers evidence which casts doubt on the experience or the person’s perceptual apparatus:
+ e.g may be mistaken in what they have seen or hallucinated on drugs - proof must be offered by those who claim experience is not genuine
1) How has Swinburne’s Principle of Credulity been challenged?
2) How has Swinburne’s Principle of Credulity been supported?
+ who would agree with Wainwright’s point?
1) Martin
- may have tried to have a RE & failed
- negative principle (if God seems absent then he probably is absent)
- experience must be verifiable via empirical evidence
2) Wainwright
- experience can be verified by other means:
e.g the long-lasting virtuous effect it has on the recipient, the person’s effect on others, the depth of what they claim & consistency with others’ experiences
+ William James & Teresa of Avila
What are some points in support of religious experience?
+ religion experiences are key premises in many religions or the source of a religious figure’s authority e.g Buddha’s enlightenment & St Paul
+ religious experiences have been recorded as having life changing effects on certain recipients e.g Tommy Scott & Teresa of Avila
+ (Jung) humanity has a collective unconscious & one aspect is the knowledge that belief in God is a good thing supporting Otto’s point of humans seeking spiritual
+ people are willing to accept non-physical attributes as knowledge e.g inner beauty so people may be able to experience God in the same way
What are some points which criticise religious experience?
- science demands empirical evidence which religious experiences cannot provide
- they may be a result of drugs/alcohol such as LSD (Kant supported this point)
- (Hume) direct experience of God is impossible
- (Russell) the moral effect on the recipient is not evidence
- (Freud) they are just a result of suppression of sexual feelings or immaturity
- (Ockham) simplest answer is usually correct
Nature of Religious Experience Key Quotes
“alters behaviour and changes attitudes” (Hay)
“sense and taste of the infinite” (Schleiermacher)
“involves the unifying of the inner self” (James)
“nobody reaches the Father except through me” (Bible)
“entirely lost in God” (Suso)
“significance of religious experiences in the development of religious traditions” (Smart)
Religious Experience Criticisms Key Quotes
“there is no difference between someone who eats too little and sees Heaven and someone who drinks too much and sees snakes” (Russell)
“religion is an illusion” (Freud)
“One ape’s hallucination is another ape’s religious experience” (Stross)
