Religious Experience

Book Review: The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus by Gary Lachman

by Mike Rush

Published in De Numine, No. 52, Spring 2012, pp47-48.

Ecstasy and the Kinesthetic Body: An Ethnographic Study of Contemporary Pentecostal Worship

by Travis Cooper

Master's Thesis, Missouri State University, May 2011

Keywords: pentecostalism, expressive worship, contemporary music, the body, kinetic motion, trance, cognition, assembly of god, ethnography

One prominent characteristic of historic Pentecostal praxis is lively, ecstatic music. After tracing the roots of... more One prominent characteristic of historic Pentecostal praxis is lively, ecstatic music. After tracing the roots of Pentecostal music and its developments up to the present, this study investigates the production and experience of contemporary worship in Evangel Temple Christian Center, an Assemblies of God congregation in Springfield, Missouri. Using ethnographic interviews and months of detailed field observations, this study traces the internal dynamics of musical expression in terms of evident tensions such as the balance between processes of institutionalization with ecstatic charismatic experiences. Combining research on music, cognition, and materialist theories with firsthand ethnographic data, problematic conceptions of the human body arise. The Pentecostal body is both restrained and expressive, distrusted and celebrated. Evangel Temple is balanced carefully between processes of formalization and charismatic praxis, and due to its implementation of a range of sacred music genres, it caters to all age groups and retains vitality and vibrancy.

(Book Chapter) Tongues of Men and Angels: Assessing the Neural Correlates of Glossolalia

by John McGraw

Book chapter for David Cave and Rebecca Sachs Norris, eds., Religion and the Body: Modern Science and the Construction of Religious Meaning. Leiden: Brill, 2012. [ http://www.brill.nl/religion-and-body ]

The accelerating popularity of Charismatic Christianity has brought with it a host of new sensibilities and ritual... more The accelerating popularity of Charismatic Christianity has brought with it a host of new sensibilities and ritual practices. Glossolalia, or ‘speaking in tongues,’ stands out among these as a particularly dramatic innovation. Typically staid churchgoers, once touched by the Holy Spirit, begin to utter strings of syllables that some claim to be the ‘language of angels.’ Recent neuroimaging studies have highlighted differences in the brains of subjects performing glossolalia in comparison to those same subjects singing a Church hymn. An investigation of the neural correlates of glossolalia highlights the importance of studying the bodily dimensions of ritual practice. But an informed analysis does not reduce social and behavioral complexities to physiological changes; rather, juxtaposing the correlates of human action from a variety of perspectives—in this case the social, the bodily, and the behavioral—suggests productive new approaches to the study of ritual. Having received the attentions of numerous scholars during the 20th and 21st centuries, glossolalia provides an excellent test case for this correlational approach to human action.

The Philosopher and the Neuroscientist: Dewey, Harris, and the Nature of Religious Experiences

by Jonathan Weidenbaum

Between Mysticism and Medical Materialism: The Relevance of William James and John Dewey for the Question of Neurotheology.

by Jonathan Weidenbaum

Originally delivered at a conference:: Mysticism Without Bounds, Bangalore, India. January 2011.

It is now published in a Tattva, Journal of Philosophy. Christ University, Bangalore.

"Religious Experience: Reframing the Question." in Forum Philosophicum 16, no. 1 (special issue) (2011): 139-55.

by George Karuvelil

"You have to take it with you: the embodied nature of the religious self""

by Jonathan Weidenbaum

Was originally published in The Global Spiral (currently under construction), an online publication of The Metanexus Institute.

Review Essay on Wolterstorff and Reformed Epistemology

by Brendan Sweetman

© International Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No.3 (Sept. 2011), pp. 389-406

Religious Experience in a Cross-Cultural and Interfaith Context: Limitations and Possibilities

by Louis Hoffman

Religious Experience, Development, and Diversity

by Louis Hoffman

Psychedelic Drugs and the Religious Experience: A Study of Neurological and Mystical Relationships

by Erika Lal

Spring 2011

This paper explores numerous articles and publications from research performed on the neurological and cognitive... more This paper explores numerous articles and publications from research performed on the neurological and cognitive effects of psychedelic drugs, also called entheogenic, in relation to religious or spiritual experiences. In defining religious experiences and drug-induced experiences, the similarities of their neurological activity can then be compared. Looking at fMRI and SPECT scan results, the brain stimulation and activity of both experiences prove to be more alike than different. With an ancient history of civilizations using psychoactive substances as medicinal, ritualistic, and spiritual remedies, these drugs have still shown positive treatments in more recent years. Now that a long-time research ban is being re-evaluated, the discussion of these psychoactive substances as beneficial or harmful to individuals must be revisited.

The copying or publishing of this document is prohibited without the author's permission, and/or proper citations of the work. All rights reserved.

Divine Immanence: A Psychodynamic Study in Women's Experience of Goddess

by Patricia 'Iolana

Published in Claremont Journal of Religion Vol 1 No 1 January 2012, 86-107.

Contemporary women’s spiritual memoirs document a paradigmatic shift towards the Sacred Feminine with vast... more Contemporary women’s spiritual memoirs document a paradigmatic shift towards the Sacred Feminine with vast theological, psychological, social, and religious implications.  These memoirs serve as a locus theologicus for heterodoxical thealogical reflection on religious experience. Drawn from the pages of the memoirs in this study this paper shall briefly examine the methodology required to understand these collective spiritual experiences and how the experience of an immanent Sacred Feminine lies at the heart of this Western paradigmatic shift towards the Feminine Divine.


Keywords: Divine Immanence, Sacred Feminine, Carol P. Christ, Carl Jung, Thealogy

The evidential value of near-death experiences for belief in life after death

by Michael Potts

In this paper, I explore the issue of what evidential value near death experiences (NDEs) offer for belief in life... more In this paper, I explore the issue of what evidential value near death experiences (NDEs) offer for belief in life after death. I survey the major positions on this issue, ranging from writers who believe that NDEs already offer convincing evidence for life after death, to physicalists who believe that they offer, at best, a very weak case. I argue that the present NDE evidence does suggest the possibility of life after death; however, such evidence is not yet overpowering or convincing. However, I go on to argue that NDEs do offer persuasive evidence for life after death for the individual who has the NDE. I end by suggesting that further research should be done on the most impressive type of NDE evidence for life after death, veridical perceptions during an NDE.

"Walter Burkert and the Meaning of Myth"

by Claude Pavur

Second edition 2011. Slightly adapted from the article that appeared in the Journal of Religious Studies (Cleveland State University) 9:1 (Spring 1981), pp. 10-18.

Walter Burkert's approach to myth (summarized in this review-essay) is provocative and complex but it needs to be... more Walter Burkert's approach to myth (summarized in this review-essay) is provocative and complex but it needs to be complemented by the larger vision of Jean Rudhart and others.

Report on Dr Krastu Banev's paper “The Idea of the Numinous in the 4th Century: Abraham, John Chrysostom, and Rudolf Otto in Dialogue”

by Justin A. Mihoc

Published on RBECS.

This is a report on a paper presented by Dr Krastu Banev, Lecturer in Greek Patristics and Byzantine Studies in the... more This is a report on a paper presented by Dr Krastu Banev, Lecturer in Greek Patristics and Byzantine Studies in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University, at the Patristics Research Seminar at the Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University, 24th of November 2011.

In this very inspiring paper, Dr Banev intended to show the similarities and differences between the idea of religious experience and the numinous employed by John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) and Rudolf Otto (1869–1937).

Qualitative methods and 'the (partly) ineffable' in psychological research on religion and spirituality

by Adrian Coyle

Published in 2008 in Qualitative Research in Psychology, 5, 56-67. A manuscript version of the paper can be downloaded from http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/2294/1/Coyle_2008_Qualitative_Research_in_Psychology_paper.pdf

Historically, religious and spiritual issues have been marginalized within academic psychology. Even with the advent... more Historically, religious and spiritual issues have been marginalized within academic psychology. Even with the advent of the psychology of religion, some important research topics and questions have remained marginalized because of the domain’s enthusiastic embrace of a positivist-empiricist framework. This article considers what qualitative methods can offer psychological research on religion and spirituality, focusing on the challenges of exploring religious or spiritual concepts and experiences that may prove difficult to capture in language.

Realismo e antirealismo nella relazione di arte e esperienza religiosa

by Daniele Bertini

in "Arte e esperienza religiosa", a cura di M.Iiritano e S.Sorrentino, Napoli: Fredericiana Editrice Universitaria, 2011.

My starting assumption concerns the default view in western aestethics. My claim is that the view can be characterized... more My starting assumption concerns the default view in western aestethics. My claim is that the view can be characterized in the following manner: while the arts and religious experience are formally different kinds of human experience, the arts have the same content of religious experience (Essentialist claim, EC). I argue that both from a realist and antirealist standpoint EC does not make sense. Consequently, EC should be rejected as the right approach to the relation between the arts and religious experience.

Grenzüberschreitungen in der Mystik? Neuere theologische Ansätze im Umgang mit einem (inter)kulturellen Phänomen [Crossing Borders in Mysticism? Recent Theological Approaches in Dealing with a (Inter)Cultural Phenomenon], in: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai. Theologia Catholica Latina 56, 2011, Heft 2, S. 15-36

by Balázs J. Nemes

In einem trivialen Verständnis bedeutet Mystik das, was die Religionen der Erde jenseits ihrer... more In einem trivialen Verständnis bedeutet Mystik das, was die Religionen der Erde jenseits ihrer institutionell-dogmatischen Ausprägungen miteinander verbindet. Inwieweit ein solch entkontextualisierter Mystik-Begriff wissenschaftlich vertretbar ist, soll genauso diskutiert werden wie die christlichen Voraussetzungen und Möglichkeiten einer sinnvollen Verständigung über fremde mystische Überlieferungen im interreligiösen Dialog. In diesem Zusammenhang sollen zwei theologische Ansätze (Josef Sudbrack und John Hick) näher besprochen werden, um zu zeigen, wie die (christliche) Theologie der Religionen über die Rolle und den Stellenwert der Mystik in der interreligiösen Verständigung urteilt. Es wird sich dabei zeigen, dass in der Einstellung außerchristlichen mystischen Überlieferungen gegenüber dieselben Dichotomien obwalten wie in der Beurteilung von nichtchristlichen Religionen: Schroffe Ablehnung des fremden Mystischen bei zeitgleichem Anspruch auf die Exklusivität der eigenen mystischen Tradition ist eher untypisch; inklusivistische und pluralistische Tendenzen sind desto häufiger anzutreffen. Vor diesem Hintergrund stellt sich die Frage, ob sich in der eigenen zweitausendjährigen Theologiegeschichte einen Ansatz findet, der nicht nur die zum Dialog erforderliche Offenheit fremden religiösen Überlieferungen gegenüber aufweist, sondern auch ein wissenschaftlich verantwortbares Umgehen mit der eigenen Tradition ermöglicht. Dabei geht es um den Ansatz der Negativen Theologie, dem beim rechten Licht gesehen sowohl das Absolutheitsdenken als auch der religiöse Relativismus fremd sind.

Diversity and the God image: Examining ethnic differences in the experience of God for a college-age population

by Louis Hoffman

John L. Hoffman, Kei Dillard, Jessica Clark, Reyno Acoba, Fred Williams, & Tiffany T. Jones, co-authors

This study examined ethnic group differences in the emotional experience of God for a college-age population. The... more This study examined ethnic group differences in the emotional experience of God for a college-age population. The researchers collected in-depth demographic data and administered the God Image Scales (GIS) and a series of attachment inventories with a sample of 211 college students. Using three levels of factor analysis, the researchers uncovered significant differences between White and non-White cohorts in their experience of God and in the influence of various factors including religiosity, spirituality, age, and having received psychotherapy. Additional results have implications for the interrelationship of models for the God image, faith development, ethnic identity development, and clinical practice.

The Esoteric Experience

by Mike Rush

This article is based on a dissertation written for the MA in Religious Experience run by the then University of Wales, Lampeter, 2008.  It was published in Paranthropology, Vol. 2, No. 3, http://paranthropologyjournal.weebly.com

What kinds of spiritual experiences are reported by people involved with esotericism and occultism?  Are... more What kinds of spiritual experiences are reported by people involved with esotericism and occultism?  Are experiences, and their outcomes, negative or positive?  This approach was based upon that of William James, author of the seminal Varieties of Religious Experience (James, 1902), who advocated judging spiritual experiences by their fruits.  The three traditions selected were Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophy, G.I. Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way movement, and Mathers’ Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.  Sources of written accounts of spiritual experiences were collected from published texts, the archive of the Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC), and from contemporary practitioners. It was found that esoteric or occult spirituality can be a source of positive experiences and outcomes.  This is contrary to the popular conception of these traditions.    Finally, there is no esoteric experience per se that can be characterised from the data. The experiences reported, whilst differing in emphasis, tend to be similar to accounts from other traditions.