Religious Experience

Lesson 1 - Different forms of Religious Experience

‘Jesus is alive…I spoke to him this morning’

What do believers who say this actually mean?How would an atheist respond to this?

Bertrand Russell

‘Some people drink too much and see snakes,

while other fast too much and see God’.

Thomas Hobbes

When a man says that God spoke to him in a dream it ‘…is no more

than to say he dreamed that God spoke to him’.

David Hay: Religious Experience today (1969)

• 31% of British people and 35% of Americans have ‘felt close to a powerful spiritual force’ or have had an experience that they might consider religious.

• May last for a few seconds or a lot longer

• Give an awareness that there is more to reality than this physical world

• May produce a change in behaviour and/or attitudes, including a sense of altruism, increased self esteem and a feeling of purpose.

‘Spiritual but not religious’

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20888141

Objectivist vs Subjectivist views of

Religious Experience

An objectivist view of religious experience is that if a religious experience is true, it is evidence of the existence of God who exists independently, outside the human mind, and who can be encountered by experience.

A subjectivist view of religious experience says that what is important about religious experience is the effect that it has on the believer. It is not necessary to think in terms of an actual, objective being which we call God.

Is religious experience objective or subjective?

• Does the subjectivity of religious experience dilute it so that it does not matter whether they are actual encounters between people and God?

• It does not seem consistent with reports of religious experience such as those in the Bible that report real encounters, or like in the story of Pentecost where many people had a similar religious experience at the same time.

Can a religious experience be defined?

Read pages 11/12 Religious Experience, Peter Cole

Swinburne categorised 5

types of religious

experiencePublic Experience: Ordinary experiences.

Experiencing a perfectly normal non-religious object or event and seeing God in this. For example the night sky

Public experiences; extraordinary experiences

Experiencing a very unusual public event: for example, the resurrection appearances of Jesusor Jesus turning water into wine.

Private experience:

describable by normal

vocabularyFor example; Joseph’s dream of an angel

Private experience: non

describable private

experienceMystical experiences such as those experienced by Teresa of Alvila

Private experience: Non

specified private religious

experienceCould include things such as viewing the world from a religious perspective.

What would these

experiences be categorised by

Swinburne?1. Awe at the beauty of God’s

creation2. A young girl called Bernadette

seeing a vision of the Virgin Mary

3. John Wesley feeling that his heart had been ‘strangely warmed’ and his sins removed by Jesus.

4. The Qur’an being revealed to Muhhammad (pbuh) by Allah

5. Moses receiving the 10 commandments from God

HomeworkPlease read William James’ argument from

Religious Experience 301-304

Religious Experience

Aims and main conclusions drawn from William James

PINT???

Apply James’ ideasApply James’ criteria to St Teresa of Alvila

Apply James’ criteria to Stephen BradleyStephen Bradley was an uneducated man, who already considered himself a Christan at the age of 14, however 9 years later, at a revival in his village and he realised that he was not as firm in his faith as others seemed to be. He went to hear a methodist preacher and although he ‘trembled involuntarily’ he felt ‘nothing at heart’. Later that evening ‘I began to feel my heart beat very quick all of a sudden, which made me at first think that perhaps something is going to ai me, though I was not alarmed, for I felt no pain. My heart increased in its beating, which soon convinced me that it was the Holy Spirit from the effect it had on me. I began to feel exceedingly happy and humble, and such a sense of unworthiness as I never felt before… a stream (resembling air in feeling) came into my mouth and heart in a more sensible manner than that of drinking anything , which continued as near as I could judge, five minutes or more, which appeared to be the cause of such a palpitation in my heart.’ He goes on to describe how he felt the presence of angels, and how reading the word of God actually felt like God was actually spewing to him. He felt a sense of commission to go and speak to his neighbours about religion and he thought his faith had an unshakeable quality which it had lacked before.

Apply James’ criteria to S H HadleyS H Bradley describes himself before conversion as ‘a homeless, friendless, dying drunkard’. He took himself to a mission where he was impressed by the preachers conviction of faith. He heard the testimonies of others and then went forward and was prayed for. Hadley describes how ‘I said, Dear Jesus, can you help me? Never with mortal tongue can I describe that moment. Although up to that moment my soul had been filled with indescribable gloom, I felt the glorious brightness of the noonday sun shine into my heart. I felt I was a free man’. Hadley said that he never wanted another drink and became an active and useful member of New York society.

James definition‘the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they

may consider the divine’

James’ conclusions• James draws on his

knowledge of psychology and neurology in accepting that religious experiences are psychological phenomena that occur in our brains. However, this does not mean that it is just psychological phenomena. James argues that these experiences may well have supernatural elements aw well as a physical element. James conclusion rests on three key principles:

• Empiricism.

• James is committed to an empirical approach. The many case studies he produces are empirical evidence of the effects of religious experience.

‘I think it may be asserted that there are religious experiences of a specific nature… I think that they point with reasonable probability to the continuity of our consciousness with a wider, spiritual environment from which the ordinary man is shut off’.

James’ conclusions• Pluralism:

• His research into experiences in different faiths led him to conclude that they were similar. Those having experiences may be experiencing the same ultimate reality, which is then interpreted into the ‘second hand’ religious belief. A Christian may interpret the presence of the Holy Spirit, whereas a Hindu might interpret that differently.

• Pragmatism

• This concept is vital to understanding James. As a pragmatist, James believed that truth is not fixed and that what is true is what has great value for us. Therefore, on observing the effects of religious experience, we have to conclude that there is truth to be found in religion.

James’ conclusionsDoes James’ ‘test’ show that religious experiences come from a

real encounter with a God who exists ‘out there’ objectively, or in other words that religious experiences can be veridical? Or does it show only the force of the experience within the mind of the

individual, subjectively?James recognises that psychological interpretations of conversion

would look to the subconscious mind for the origins of the religious experience, whereas the religious believer looks to God.

He did not tell us which was the better interpretation. He did, however, stress that religious experience can often have the

power to take over the individuals life for ever.

Read: Page 252/3 Understanding

Philosophy of Religion and summarise James

arguments.Does James’ ‘test’ show that religious experiences come from a

real encounter with a God who exists ‘out there’ objectively, or in other words that religious experiences can be veridical? Or does it show only the force of the experience within the mind of the

individual, subjectively?James recognises that psychological interpretations of conversion

would look to the subconscious mind for the origins of the religious experience, whereas the religious believer looks to God.

He did not tell us which was the better interpretation. He did, however, stress that religious experience can often have the

power to take over the individuals life for ever.

Summarise the criticisms of James

on Page 254/5.Summarise his criticisms and order them best to

worst.

Religious Experience

Visions and Voices

Religious Experience

Numinous Experience

Religious Experience

Conversion Experience

Religious Experience

Corporate Experience

Religious Experience

Challenges to Religious Experience argument

Religious Experience

Sacred writing