William james thought that religious experiences lay at the. Although he is best known for his contributions to the problem of evil, he has produced innovative and influential work across a wide array of subjects at the interface between philosophy and religion. Many religions have value frameworks regarding personal. Paul, augustine, and so forth on western civilization. To widen the definition to include all experiences referred to as religious would be foolhardy, since people often use terms such as religious and mystical metaphorically, to refer to any experience which is overwhelming. They included caroline daviss the evidential force of religious experience 1989, george walls religious experience and religious belief. It develops theories of the world which best fit physically observed evidence. The evil god challenge religious studies 2010 stephen law. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
William rowe is one of the leading thinkers in contemporary philosophy of religion. This study examines the nature of religious experiences and whether they can be used as evidence for religious beliefs. William james thought that religious experiences lay at. An evidential approach to evangelisation with bernard lonergan 2012. The search for a definition that will capture the essence of religious experience is a futile one as can be seen from attempts to definereligionormysticism,the meaning ofreligious experiencecannot be fixed by appeal to clear and universally shared intuitions.
Pdf religious experience and the probability of theism. God, suffering, and the value of free will, 2021 9780198733072 fleischacker. International journal for philosophy of religion january 1984, volume 16, issue 3, pp 189202 cite as the evidential value of religious experiences. Objections commonly raised against reliance on religious experience become irrelevant on a nondoxastic approach. Religious evidentialism is a specific application of the more general claim evidentialism. The evidential force of religious experience philpapers. The internet archive provides free access to hundreds of classic books on spiritualism, psychical research and the paranormal. Religious experience stanford encyclopedia of philosophy.
A microsociological approach was used to describe the retrospective accounts of their religious experiences, the afterthefact interpretations they constructed, how they made those experiences meaningful, and the role cultural systems and. Pdf religious experience in the current theological discussion. Theistic arguments chapter 5 an introduction to the philosophy of. The evidential force of religious experience kindle. The evidential force of religious experience, 1999 9780198738909 draper, schellenberg. Proponents of arguments from religious experience often succumb to the demand to provide a brief, precise definition of religious experience.
Openmindedness and religious devotion springerlink. One of the most important developments in hinduism in the common era has been the rise of devotionalism or bhakti. Sep 23, 1999 the evidential force of religious experience by caroline franks davis, 9780198250012, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Evidentialism is often formulated as a theory of epistemic justification. Both monistic and theistic experiences, they point out, are described as wholly unlike normal sensory events. The principle of credulity and the evidential value of. Davis caroline franks, the evidential force of religious experience. The international handbooks of religion and education series aims to provide. The evidential force of religious experience by caroline franks davis, 9780198250012, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Furthermore, religious experiences are often worldtransforming as well just contemplate the immense impact of people such as moses, st. Open epub for religious communities and human flourishing. A comparative doxasticpractice epistemology of religious. In germany rationalism appeared as an ally of religion, but she soon realized that the dogmatic side of religion was incapable of.
Sep 28, 1989 this study examines the nature of religious experiences and whether they can be used as evidence for religious beliefs. Renewing philosophy of religion, 2017 9780195127386 earman. Smith also pauses to discuss the force of lindbecks point. Sigmund freud religious ideas as wish fulfillments 49. William james and the varieties of religious experience. The evidential force of religious experience paperback. Pdf taking a new look at the language of religious experience, the authors in this. Jediism or jedism is a philosophy mainly based on the depiction of the jedi characters in star wars media. The evidential force of religious experience by caroline. Feb 23, 2010 add this ebook to your cart, purchase it and download it immediately in any or all of these formats. Hubert contributes to the field of knowledge about lee and spiritual autobiography, especially in african american experience, in at. Finally, draper contends that the evidence of religious experience is, at best, ambiguous evidence for the moral attributes of the creator.
The personal religious experiences of cistercian monks. Elton trueblood was born december 12, 1900 in iowa, the fourth of five children, and was graduated from william penn college in iowa in 1922. Philosophy of religion 41 questions to consider 11 can. For your convenience, we have gathered together many of the best, arranged in alphabetical order by author. Caroline franks davis provides a clear, sensitive, and carefully argued assessment of the value of religious experiences as evidence for religious beliefs. Evidential force of religious experience oxford scholarship. With over 40,000 copies in print since its original publication in 1982, steve evanss philosophy of religion has served many generations of students as a classic introduction to the philosophy of religion from a christian perspective. Get your kindle here, or download a free kindle reading app. Religious communities and human flourishing tyler j.
The varieties of religious experience center for the study of. Critique of religious experience peterson the problem of evil all essays in peterson st. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the evidential force of religious experience. Evidence for the effects of religious communities on these flourishing. It cannot, however, be denied that ghazlas mission was almost apostolic like that of kant in germany of the eighteenth century. The argument from religious experience is an argument for the existence of god.
I believe that there is an evidential force to religious experience, both for the individual and for society. Though theologians and others have contributed to this development, the primary motive force behind it has been poets, who have composed songs celebrating their love for god, and sometimes lamenting their distance from her. Evil makes a strong case against gods existence mackie, j. Much more than an argument from religous experience, the inquiry systematically addresses underlying philosophical issues such as the role of interpretation in experience, the function of models and metaphors in religious language, and. Ones r eligious beliefs ought to be proportioned to ones evidence. However, with corporate religious experiences they are still only experience by a set group of people who, potentially, simply act as sheep and follow the crowd, copying the behaviors of them. Professor of philosophy, loyola university chicago. To others, religion is not so much a source of conflict as a source of hope in sub saharan africa, where religious leaders and movements are a major force in civil society and. Pdf the evidential value of neardeath experiences for. The historical evidence, however, does not support such a narrow conception of. Unep, environment, religion and culture in the context of the 2030.
The evidential value of religious experiences springerlink. Contemporary defenders of the argument are richard swinburne, william alston, alvin plantinga. The evidential value of religious experience third paper week 12. The evidential force of religious experience davis, caroline franks on.
As long as the veridicality of such experience remains an epistemic possibility, it should guide our nondoxastic commitment. Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with god or the absolute, but may refer to any. The subtitle of my presentation bears what someone might recognise as a certain, perhaps misleading resemblance to caroline franks davis book the evidential force of religious experience. Davis, the evidential force of religious experience. The evidential force of religious experience kindle edition by davis, caroline franks. Evidence for the special nature of mystical experience rests on the. Though neothomism was once a great force in catholic circles. The phrasereligious experiencehas in some quarters come to be reserved almost exclusively for aspects of experience which are allegedly prereflective, transcend the verbal, or are in some way free of the structures of thought and judgment which language represents.
The philosophy of religion reader 1st edition chad. Explaining religious experience gs martin, michael. While the social support is an important mechanism relating re. Whole books were written on religious experience which basically followed swinburnes line of reasoning, expanding it, modifying it, and replying to objections. With all the more traditional avenues of theisms defense generally in disrepute, modern theologians and religious philosophers have repeatedly sought to justify religious belief rationally by reference to the individuals experience.
He has, for example, written extensively on the existentialist theologian, paul tillich, on the challenging. Culture and religion promoting intercultural dialogue for sustainable development. In this paper, i explore the issue of what evidential value neardeath experiences ndes offer for belief in life after death. During his career, trueblood held faculty and chaplain positions. Most of these were published in the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries and are now in the public domain. Religious experience religious experiences, saint teresa of jesus religious experience as the root. I will use the expression religious experience to mean any experience that by itself or in conjunction with other experiences may appear to provide evidential support for a religious belief. Can religious experience provide justification for the. He did graduate study at brown university, hartford seminary, and harvard university before finishing his phd at johns hopkins university in philosophy career. Religion is a socialcultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, worldviews. Caroline franks davis, the evidential force of religious experience, oup.
A marc21 catalogue record for this edition can be downloaded from. Davis discusses the important philosophical issues raised by religious experience, such as the role of models and metaphors in descriptions of religious experience, and the way experiences in general are used as evidence for claims about the world. Although religious experience is an ancient phenomenon, the discourse about religious experience is relatively new. The goal of the research is to understand how, if at all, religious experience can be good evidence for religious belief. The evidential force of religious experience hardcover. The philosophy of religion as a distinct discipline is an innovation of the last 200 years, but its central topicsthe existence and nature of the divine, humankinds relation to it, the nature of religion, and the place of religion in human lifehave been with us since the inception of philosophy. This book provides an assessment of the value of religious experiences as evidence for religious beliefs. In her article testimony and prophecy in the life and religious experience of jarena lee, susan hubert uses previous writings by and about jarena lee to study the life of this 8nineteenthcentury preacher. Various reasons have been offered for and against accepting this contention. The evidential force of religious experience kindle edition. I survey the major positions on this issue, ranging from writers who.
Some scholars have responded to the apparent differences between monistic and theistic mysticisms by emphasizing the role of socio religious interpretations of the experiences. Jediism attracted public attention in 2001 when a number of people recorded their religion as jedi on national censuses. Philosophy of religion comprehensive exam reading list. Religious experiences are almost always judged to be experiences of something immensely positive. Sadat academy for management sciences ramses branch h. Religious experience objectrelated this focuses on why the reliability of the claimed religious experience may be doubted the entities in the experience are improbable e. Can religious experience provide justification for the belief. Corporate religious experience can seem to have more evidential force than solitary ones it gives more credibility to their statement. Swinburne formulates his account of the evidential force of religious experience. Reflections on cognitive and experiential approaches to theology, european journal of theology 2. Travis dumsday, neuroscience and the evidential force of. Or consider the argument from religious experience. Neuroscientific explanations of religious experience are not free. For some helpful work on the role of interpretation in religious experience, see caroline frank daviss the evidential force of religious experience, chap.
William jamess the varieties of religious experience was an intellectual landmark, paving the way for current study of psychology, philosophy and religious. Pdf the evidential problem of evil graham oppy academia. Apr 24, 2018 nearly seventyfive percent of the monks interviewed at a cistercian monastery in the southeastern united states reported having had religious experiences. William forgie 1 international journal for philosophy of religion volume 19, pages 145 159 1986 cite this article. Traditional religion is a better choice since it commonly contains religious experience. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Buy the evidential force of religious experience new e. I think that there are few compelling arguments in philosophy, and hence that there is some substance to the second and third claims. Paul k moser, loyola university chicago, philosophy department, faculty member. The principle of credulity and the evidential value of religious experience j. His current research is in the epistemology of religious experience, taking into account the individual characteristics of the various religions of the world, and buddhism in particular. Douglas geivett the evidential value of religious experience part 8, the problem of evil 50.
From early in their history, bhakti traditions have. Neuroscientific explanations of religious experience are not free from cultural aspects. Going further than an argument from religious experience, the inquiry systematically addresses underlying philosophical issues such as the role of interpretation in experience, the function of models and metaphors in religious language, and the way perceptual experiences in general. The nature of religion religion as a social phenomenon, emile durkheim a defense of religious realism, roger trigg the meaning of religious beliefs is in their use, d. Caroline franks davis, the evidential force of religious. But an explication of the phrase, with the explicit recognition that it is our.
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