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Religious Experience
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Definitions of a religious experience | A rare and supernatural event. An encounter with God. A religious person counts all experiences as religious ones. Many experience it in nature e.g. awe and wonder |
| Wittgenstein's rabbit/duck picture | People see it as either a duck or a rabbit - people see things, interpret things, experience (Hick) things differently. Experiences can be interpreted differently. |
| William James 4 commonalities of religious experience | Ineffability, noetic quality, transience and passivity. Believes all religious experience is genuine - not necessarily real |
| Corporate religious experience | Shared by a group of people but still experienced individually in terms of interpretation. |
| Mystical religious experience | Person experiences the transcendent - go beyond normal awareness |
| Otto: numinous experiences | An awareness of human nothingness when faced with a holy and powerful being - 'mysterium tremendum et fascinas' - feeling of awe and repulsion |
| Toronto blessing | An example of corporate experience. Known as the 'holy blessing' where the congregation breaks out into fits of laughter and act animalistic |
| St Teresa of Avila | Catholic saint. Described her series of visions e.g. of hell. Her feelings afterwards showed they were genuine. NUT she suffered illness. |
| Conversion religious experience | A change from one set of beliefs to another with life-changing consequences e.g. manner of worship and diet |
| Ways of understanding religious experiences: UNION WITH A HIGHER POWER | Mystical experiences - overwhelmed, ineffable sensations |
| Ways of understanding religious experiences: PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT | An illusion - mind plays tricks e.g. from wanting to see God so badly |
| Ways of understanding religious experiences: PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECT | Physical health affecting mental health e.g. dehydration causing hallucinations |
| Swinburne | "A perfectly good creator will seek to interact with his creatures" |
| C.S Evans - the religious dimension of experience | Draws distinction between 'the religious dimension of experience' and 'religious experience'. Former is just religious believers interpreting the world in a religious way e.g. good grades = God |
| C.S Evans' types of religious experience | 1. A monist experience: an awareness of your union with God 2. A numinous experience: an awareness of your insignificance compared to God - a separateness - awareness of the wholly other |
| Hardy's research into religious experiences | Found 8 categories. e.g. answered prayers, presence of the dead, sacred presence in nature |
| Saul's conversion to Paul (sudden conversion) | Travelling to Damascus Saul was blinded by a white light and heard a voice. Was treated by Christians. After recovery he converted to Christianity and became a great missionary. |
| William Vecera (gradual conversion) | A soldier. After completing military service he became fully committed to faith. |
| Ineffability | Unable to describe - beyond words |
| Noetic quality | unlike any other knowledge previously had |
| Transcience | lasts a short time but has life-changing impacts |
| Passivity | feel under a higher power |
| Criticisms | They always fit into the culture of the person's worship, easily misinterpreted, drugs, alcohol. People assume numinous experiences are religious e.g. Niagara Falls |
| Criticisms of corporate experiences | Mass hysteria, interpreted the original event wrong, mass hallucinations, heightened emotional atmosphere |
Created by:
hollyharding96