A2 P&E, RE

A2 P&E, RE

1. William James

   • Aims
     • Study from a psychological angle to find implications for philosophy
     • Take an objective stance
     • Be prepared for validity
   • PINT
     • Passive; outside force
     • Ineffable; no description
     • Noetic; gives deeper knowledge
     • Transient; fleeting, long term consequences
   • Conclusions
     • Psychological; but still supernatural
     • Empiricism; case studies are evidence
     • Pluralism; same divine, interpreted
     • Pragmatism; Truth isn't fixed

2. Numinous

   • Feeling of awe in presence of God, small in comparison
     • Country walks, a baby's birth
   • Examples
     • Psalm 8; (when I consider the work of your fingers"
     • J.Estlin Carpenter
   • Rudolf Otto
     • All experiences are numinous
       • Too simple to say all are numinous
     • Mysterium, Tremendum et Fascinans
       • Mysterious quality
       • Dangerous
       • Attractive
     • Cannot be described
       • May look back later and form ideas on God
         • Says comes from deep cognitive apprehension; ideas later?
       • Beyond usual experience
     • Felt on an emotional level
   • Schleirmacher
     • Agrees felt emotionally
       • But instead a feeling of dependance

3. Corporate

   • Group all sharing a religious experience
   • Examples
     • Bible; Pentecost, Acts 2
       • Tongues of fire
       • Speaking different languages
     • Toronto Blessing 1994
       • Started crying, laughing, making animal sounds
   • Evaluations
     • More evidential force
     • Mass hysteria?
     • Group pressure?
     • Where are God's priorities?

4. Visions/Voices

   • Examples
     • Bible: Mary seeing Gabriel
     • St. Teresa Avila (inner)
     • Bible: 1 Samuel 3
     • Augustine (interpreted)
   • Evaluation
     • Exact accounts
     • Too vivid
     • Physical factors
     • How do we know it's God?
     • Based on previous belief
     • Is "seeing" a metaphor?

5. Conversion

   • Examples
     • Stephen Bradley
     • St Paul
   • John Lofland/ Rodney Stark
     • Sociologists; Conversion to the Unification Church
       • All types of Conversion follow a pattern
   • William James
     • Experiences validated by lasting effects
       • Russell; can be changed by fictional story
   • Edwin Starbuck
     • Drew parallels; religious conversion and finding identity in adolescense
       • Depression/anxiety = Relief/joy
   • Too happen so quickly suggests it's real
   • Hard to separate internal/external causes
     • Can't tell what they'd have done without
   • Still an element of passivity
   • Experiential Argument

6. Revelation

   • Gaining of knowledge through God as an agency
     • Higher knowledge than that of reason
       • From an infallible source
         • Can't be affected by human understanding
   • Propositional/ Non-propositional
     • Prop k: x=y
     • N.Prop K; how to do something
     • Propositional revelation; God gives knowledge through what he says
     • Non-Propositional revelation; God is revealed by what he does
   • Karl Barth
     • Only revelation reveals God
     • Believed only Christianity could
     • New Test higher than Old
     • Only when God wants
     • Only through Jesus
     • Language is inadequate
     • Personal disclosure of God's nature
     • Bible not literal
     • Insight and revelation has a difference
   • Sacred Texts
     • The Qur'an
       • Direct word of Allah
       • None of Muhammad's opinions
       • True for everyone, all times
         • Society should be the one to change to fit Qur'an
       • Read in Arabic
     • Bible
       • Direct word
         • Filled prophets with Holy Spirit
         • Explains Genesis account
         • When they talk of being filled with Holy Spirit, are they?
         • Infallible
       • Not direct word
         • Guided Prophets
         • Hear distinct voice/ human complaint
         • Explains multiple accounts
         • God choosing to be relatable?

7. Evaluation

   • Psychological
     • Carl Gustav Jung; spiritual development needed
     • William James; both psychological and supernatural
     • Sigmund Freud; child desire for father figure
     • Ludwig Freurbach; make God in man's image
   • Physiology
     • Scientists find neuroscience explanations
     • Maybe our brains are wired to experience God?
   • Logical Possibililty
     • Kant: our senses can only experience things in this realm
     • C.S.Broad: If someone could see in a blind society they would be sceptical of what he saw
     • If God chose, of course we could experience him
   • Interpretation
     • All experiences are interpreted; friends describing concerts would do so differently
     • Always described in terms of people's previous faith