Religion experiences

• A religious experience is where God is experienced beyond ordinary empirical explanation.
• A vision is a view or message of God and occurs when an individual believes that they have seen or heard something supernatural such as God, an angel or one of the saints.
• There are 3 types of visions:

  • An intellectual vision
  • Sensory vision
  • Dream visions
• An intellectual vision:

  • The vision offers the person a message of inspiration or insight.
  • It is an ‘inner vision’.
  • Eg, St Teresa of Avila doesn’t claim to have seen Jesus physically with her eyes, but that she was aware of his presence
• Caroline Frank Davies challenges religious experiences:

  Description-related

  Object-related

  Subject-related
• Description Related means we question the reliability of the description. Especially when people admit that they can't describe it. How'd you know it was God then?
• Subject related means we question the reliability of the person claiming the experience due to a number of reasons

  • They're a liar
  • lack of sleep
  • use of drugs and alcohol
  • mental illness
• Object related means questioning the reliability of the object that was experienced

  • Angels and God are so vastly unlikely and this is reasonable grounds not to believe.
• Freud says all religious language and experiences are a result of repressed sexual urges. Teresa of Avila used a lot of sensual language e.g. spiritual marriage
• John Lewis says there's a link between the occurrences of experiences and times where the church feels like they needed to defend their legitimacy. Teresa's experiences occurred at the reformation.
• James says religious experiences are too personal and subjective to be convincing proof of the existence of God for those who have not had such an experience.
• Conversion is a process of change that alters a person’s view of the world and their place in it
• Conversion may be a change from one major religion to another or from within one religious denomination to another
• A conversion is sometimes combined with another type of religious experience
• There are 4 types of conversions

  Sudden

  Gradual

  Individual

  Communal
• A communal conversion is when a group of people convert at the same occasion
• An example of a sudden individual conversion is St Paul:

  Saw a blinding light and heard Jesus's voice

  Went from persecuting Christians to spreading the message

  Changed his name from Saul to Paul
• An example of a gradual individual conversion is C.S Lewis:

  • Converted to Christianity gradually appears to have been affected by the faith of his friend JRR Tolkien.
  • Lewis went on to become a very popular Christian writer with the Chronicles of Narnia themselves being full of Christian symbolism.
• An example of sudden communal conversion is the apostles:

  • The story of Pentecost in Acts of the Apostles
  • The disciples were all gathered in a room when the Holy Spirit came to them
  • The apostles were given the ability to speak any language.
  • They went and spoke to a crowd and many people were converted.
• Intellectual conversion: A conversion can be a matter of intellectual persuasion involving conflict between two systems of thought where the new one is seen as true.
• CS Lewis is an example of an intellectual conversion.

  • He recounts spending hours talking to JRR Tolkien about myth and Christianity
  • Over time became convinced that Jesus was the Son of God
• Moral conversion:

  A moral transformation whereby someone has a change in lifestyle/how they live their lives.
• Augustine is an example of a moral conversion:

  His wayward life was challenged when he read St Paul’s letter to the Romans

  The letter states the works of the flesh should be abandoned in order to be clothed with Christ
• A mystical experience is one in which the subject becomes overwhelmingly aware of the presence of God and is described many times in religious text
• Though mysticism is variously defined, there are 3 common features:

  • Transcendent
  • Unitive
  • Ecstatic
• Mysticism is transcendent:

  • The experience exposes the person to a transcendent reality which is beyond the normal empirical world.
  • As a result, they may claim to have a deeper insight into, the universe and/or the meaning of life.
  • Recipients recall feelings of ecstasy and is disengaged from the physical world.
• Mysticism is Ecstatic:

  • The person experiences a heightened mental and spiritual awareness.
  • Some say it is the closest that a living person can get to experiencing life after death.
  • They experience feelings of overwhelming emotions and enter a euphoric state
  • One appears to be in a trancelike state and cannot be easily disturbed.
• Mysticism is Unitive:

  • The person experiences a feeling of oneness and unity with God and/or the universe.
  • They may feel like they have lost their sense of individuality, like water into wine
• William James:

  • James claims experiences of great value because of the profound effect they have on people whether or not we can prove it comes from God
  • supported pragmatism- an approach that judges something on its practical effects.
• James gave four characteristics of Religious experiences:Transiency (short-lived)

  Noetic quality (knowledge is gained)

  Ineffability (indescribable

  Passivity (being taken over by a power)
• James's Passivity:

  • When the state occurs, the mystic feels as if they are taken over by a superior power.
  • This can result in phenomena such as prophetic speech and speaking in tongues.
  • The key feature here is the experience is being ‘done’ to the recipient and the moment it happens is governed by an external force.
• James Ineffability:

  • Experiences are so unlike anything else that it's impossible to express them in words.
  • Teresa of Avila used symbolic metaphorical language such as ‘spiritual marriage’
  • The event must be experienced in order to understand it as it simply cannot be adequately described. E.g. trying to understand love
• James Noetic quality:

  • Even though ineffable, the mystical experience produces insight into truths unobtainable by reason and intellect alone.
  • They reveal universal and eternal truths, e.g. the love of God.
• James's Transiency:

  • The religious experience does not last for long- anywhere between a few minutes up to 2 hours
  • They are short lived but they're very intense and have lasting consequences.
  • The person may not necessarily remember all the specific details of the experience afterwards
• Rudolf Otto says religious experiences underlies all religion
• Otto says the numinous is the holy, ineffable core of religion:

  • Experience of it cannot be described in terms of other experiences.
  • Those who have a numinous experience become dependant on an external force greater than themselves
  • It can be peaceful or fast moving and even violent.- causing intoxication, frenzy, and ecstasy.
• Otto describes the numinous as "The deepest & most fundamental element in all strong and sincerely felt religious emotion"
• Mysterium tremendum et fascinans means 'fearful and fascinating mystery' and is the 3 components of the numinous
• Otto's Mysterium:

  • God is a mystery
  • He is a ‘wholly other’ meaning he's unlike anything else thing in the normal realm of experience.
• Otto's Tremendum:

  • Refers to the simultaneous awe and dread in the absolute unapproachability of God.
  • Being overwhelmed by God’s majesty, might and the sense of one’s own nothingness in contrast God.
  • In the OT, Ezekiel’s vision of Seraphim found himself indescribably insignificant and sinful in comparison to the majesty of the vision.