P2: Religious Experiences
Scholarly Definitions:
Ninian Smart: “involves some kind of perception of the invisible world”
Schleiermacher: “offers a sense of the ultimate and an awareness of wholeness”
William James: draws on common emotions but they are directed at the divine giving the
person a feeling of reverence
Otto: “Mysterium tremendum et fascinans” (a terrifying and compelling mystery)
Descriptions:
1. Noetic: takes place in the mind
2. Transient: they are temporary; remembered imperfectly but felt so profoundly
important
3. Passive: you cannot choose to have them, they just occur
4. Ineffable: too hard to define
5. Direct: experient feels they are in direct contact with God or an ultimate truth
6. Indirect: experience of God’s creation, feeling of wholly other eg. watching the sunrise
7. Numinous: a feeling of the divine or something wholly other
8. Corporate: several people all experiencing the same
+ eg. Toronto Blessing
9. Private: singular experient
William James: (commonalities in all religious experiences)
More info: William James Argument - Religious Studies - Revision World
Passive
Ineffable
Noetic
Transient
Types of Religious Experiences:
- Conversion
- Prayer
- Meditation
- Mysticism
Conversion Experiences:
eg. St. Paul
1. intellectual: from one religion to another after deciding old system of thought is false
2. moral: from immoral to moral behaviour/change in lifestyle/ethics
St. Paul’s is both as he converted to Christianity and became morally good
Revelation:
1. Propositional: refers to God directly revealing truths
Scholarly Definitions:
Ninian Smart: “involves some kind of perception of the invisible world”
Schleiermacher: “offers a sense of the ultimate and an awareness of wholeness”
William James: draws on common emotions but they are directed at the divine giving the
person a feeling of reverence
Otto: “Mysterium tremendum et fascinans” (a terrifying and compelling mystery)
Descriptions:
1. Noetic: takes place in the mind
2. Transient: they are temporary; remembered imperfectly but felt so profoundly
important
3. Passive: you cannot choose to have them, they just occur
4. Ineffable: too hard to define
5. Direct: experient feels they are in direct contact with God or an ultimate truth
6. Indirect: experience of God’s creation, feeling of wholly other eg. watching the sunrise
7. Numinous: a feeling of the divine or something wholly other
8. Corporate: several people all experiencing the same
+ eg. Toronto Blessing
9. Private: singular experient
William James: (commonalities in all religious experiences)
More info: William James Argument - Religious Studies - Revision World
Passive
Ineffable
Noetic
Transient
Types of Religious Experiences:
- Conversion
- Prayer
- Meditation
- Mysticism
Conversion Experiences:
eg. St. Paul
1. intellectual: from one religion to another after deciding old system of thought is false
2. moral: from immoral to moral behaviour/change in lifestyle/ethics
St. Paul’s is both as he converted to Christianity and became morally good
Revelation:
1. Propositional: refers to God directly revealing truths
