Religious
Experience

F.D Schleiermacher
First attempt at presenting religious experience as a
vehicle of revelation "Feeling of absolute dependence"
Special faculty of apprehension/appreciation required
Intuitive Deeper than level of rational thought
Criticised because: Private concept - conflicting claims
Can feelings lead to knowledge claims?
Psychological origins? (Freud)

Soren Kierkegaard
(1813-1855)
God = irrational "Leap of faith" beyond reason
Subjective - "no objective way" of reaching God Has been
criticised because: Strengthened by Kant Subjective
things cannot be proven

Rudolph Otto
"Apprehension of the wholly other." - direct experience
experience of the numinous and holy One can
perceive the numinous through direct intuition
"Mysterium, tremendum et fascinans." Ineffable, though
often described with words like "awe" Criticised because:
Kant - cannot know the noumena, only the phenomena
Numinous - God…

Martin Buber
Personal encounter with the divine "I-thou" not "I-it"
relationship with God People are incorporeal and can
connect with each other and God through
direct apprehension Criticised because: Brian
Davies - everyday relationships not comparable to
relationships with
God Psychology - relationship with God
conditioned by tose we have…

may be mistake cannot verify intuition

William James (1842-1910)
Unifying core (PINT) Feeling is a source of religious
experience, felt not conceptualised "Men in their
solitude" "stand in relation to whatever they may consider
the
divine." Cannot establish cause so text effects
instead Not interested in brain's functioning - "mystical"
Criticised because: No cause Corporate not…

William James and
Conversion
2 types of conversion experience:
volitional - conscious and voluntary
self-surrender - person gives up, leaves it to
God Conversion happens when we are not looking for it
Subconscious divine intervention Criticised because:
First type is not passive so contradicts PINY May not
be a result…

William Alston's Defence of
Mysticism
Everyday experience is reported and believed so why is
religious
experience doubted? It is possible we perceive
God if there is a God to perceive Sense perceptions - if
we reported seeing a red car, no one would doubt
our sense perception No reason to…