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R.E. AS THE ROOT OF EVERY RELIGION
WHAT DOES THE WORD EXPERIENCE MEAN?

Theologically speaking, the word experience is

derived from the two German terms:

“ERLEBNIS & ERFAHRUNG”

ERLEBNIS
- It means an interior experience of an
intensely felt motion.
- it is an individual event, even a momentary
one, realized intensely in the area of the
FEELINGS & EMOTIONS.
R.E. AS THE ROOT OF EVERY RELIGION
ERFAHRUNG
- It speaks of real experiences that are based
on individual happenings that touched the
feelings, picked up by the intellect, and given a
connection among themselves and moreover
inserted and integrated into the totality of life.

- in the process of integrating, interpreting,

evaluating and judging, human reason is
guided by FAITH.

(FEELING, REFLECTION,CONRETE ACTION IN

LIFE)
• Share your religious experience.
• When it was happened into your life?
• What are the changes that happened?
• A religious experience (sometimes known
as a spiritual experience, sacred
experience, or mystical experience) is a
subjective experience which is interpreted
within a religious framework. The concept
originated in the 19th century, as a
defense against the growing rationalism of
Western society. William James
popularised the concept.
 William James

• Psychologist and philosopher William James described four characteristics

of mystical experience in The Varieties of Religious Experience. According
to James, such an experience is:

• Transient – the experience is temporary; the individual soon returns to a

"normal" frame of mind. Feels outside normal perception of space and time.
• Ineffable – the experience cannot be adequately put into words.
• Noetic – the individual feels that he or she has learned something valuable
from the experience. Feels to have gained knowledge that is normally
hidden from human understanding.
• Passive – the experience happens to the individual, largely without
conscious control. Although there are activities, such as meditation (see
below), that can make religious experience more likely, it is not something
that can be turned on and off at will.
• Norman Habel defines religious experiences as the
structured way in which a believer enters into a
relationship with, or gains an awareness of, the sacred
within the context of a particular religious tradition (Habel,
O'Donoghue and Maddox: 1993). Religious experiences
are by their very nature preternatural; that is, out of the
ordinary or beyond the natural order of things. They may
be difficult to distinguish observationally from
psychopathological states such as psychoses or other
forms of altered awareness (Charlesworth: 1988). Not all
preternatural experiences are considered to be religious
experiences. Following Habel's definition,
psychopathological states or drug-induced states of
awareness are not considered to be religious experiences
because they are mostly not performed within the context
of a particular religious tradition.
• Moore and Habel identify two classes of religious
experiences: the immediate and the mediated
religious experience (Moore and Habel: 1982).

• Mediated – In the mediated experience, the

believer experiences the sacred through mediators
such as rituals, special persons, religious groups,
totemic objects or the natural world (Habel et al.:
1993).
• Immediate – The immediate experience comes to
the believer without any intervening agency or
mediator. The deity or divine is experienced
directly.
 Rudolf Otto
• The German thinker Rudolf Otto (1869–1937) argues that there
is one common factor to all religious experience, independent
of the cultural background. In his book The Idea of the Holy
(1923) he identifies this factor as the numinous. The
"numinous" experience has two aspects:

• mysterium tremendum, which is the tendency to invoke fear

and trembling;
• mysterium fascinans, the tendency to attract, fascinate and
compel.
• The numinous experience also has a personal quality to it, in
that the person feels to be in communion with a holy other. Otto
sees the numinous as the only possible religious experience.
He states: "There is no religion in which it [the numinous] does
not live as the real innermost core and without it no religion
would be worthy of the name" (Otto: 1972). Otto does not take
any other kind of religious experience such as ecstasy and
enthusiasm seriously and is of the opinion that they belong to
the 'vestibule of religion'.
Religious Experience as perception of God

• In Perceiving God, William P. Alston offers a clear and

provocative account of the epistemology of religious
experience. He argues that the "perception of God"—his
term for direct experiential awareness of God—makes a
major contribution to the grounds of religious belief.
Surveying the variety of reported direct experiences of
God among laypersons and famous mystics, Alston
demonstrates that a person can be justified in holding
certain beliefs about God on the basis of mystical
experience. Through the perception that God is sustaining
one in being, for example, one can justifiably believe that
God is indeed sustaining one in being.
 Relationship between religion and Spirituality

• While spirituality may incorporate elements of religion, it is generally a

broader concept. Religion and spirituality are not the same thing, nor
are they entirely distinct from one another. The best way to
understand this is to think of two overlapping circles like this:

In spirituality, the questions are: where do I personally find meaning, connection, and
value?
In religion, the questions are: what is true and right?
Where the circles overlap is the individual experience, which affects the way you think,
feel, and behave.
Experts’ definitions of spirituality
• Christina Puchalski, MD, Director of the George Washington Institute
for Spirituality and Health, contends that "spirituality is the aspect of
humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning
and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the
moment, to self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred."

• According to Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary, researchers and

authors of The Spiritual Brain, “spirituality means any experience that
is thought to bring the experiencer into contact with the divine (in
other words, not just any experience that feels meaningful).”

• Nurses Ruth Beckmann Murray and Judith Proctor Zenter write that
“the spiritual dimension tries to be in harmony with the universe, and
strives for answers about the infinite, and comes into focus when the
person faces emotional stress, physical illness, or death.”
What is Religion?

• There are three main approaches to

defining religion, in sociology:

• Substantive
• Functional
• Social constructionist
• Max Weber (1905) used a substantive
definition of religion, seeing it as a belief
in a supernatural power that is unable to
be scientifically explained. In other
words, whether a belief can be
considered religious or not depends on
the substance of what is believed.
Religion requires a belief in God or gods,
or other supernatural beliefs.
• This contrasts with a functional definition,
such as that used by Durkheim or Parsons,
which defines religion by the social or
psychological functions it performs for
individuals or society. In this definition, a
belief or organisation could provide certain
functions – such as encouraging social
cohesion and a collective conscience –
without necessarily including supernatural
beliefs. Could football be considered a
religion, for instance?
• A social constructionist definition of
religion comes from interpretivist
sociologists who argue that there are so
many different types of religion that it is
impossible to come up with a single,
undisputed definition. Instead, what is
interesting is the process by which a set
of beliefs becomes recognised as a
religion and who has power to determine
whether something is a religion or not.
Spirituality
• The meaning of spirituality has developed and expanded
over time, and various connotations can be found
alongside each other.

• Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of

re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape of
man", oriented at "the image of God"as exemplified by
the founders and sacred texts of the religions of the
world. The term was used within early Christianity to
refer to a life oriented toward the Holy Spirit and
broadened during late medieval times to include mental
aspects of life.
• The term spirit means "animating or vital principle in
man and animals". It is derived from the Old French
espirit, which comes from the Latin word spiritus (soul,
courage, vigor, breath) and is related to spirare (to
breathe). In the Vulgate the Latin word spiritus is used
to translate the Greek pneuma and Hebrew ruah.

• The term "spiritual", matters "concerning the spirit", is

derived from Old French spirituel (12c.), which is
derived from Latin spiritualis, which comes from
spiritus or "spirit".

• The term "spirituality" is derived from Middle French

spiritualité, from Late Latin "spiritualitatem" (nominative
spiritualitas), which is also derived from Latin
spiritualis.
Types of Spirituality
• PATH OF INTELLECT (Thomistic prayer): About 12 percent of the
population follows this path, using the syllogistic method of Saint Thomas
Aquinas known as scholastic prayer.

• The main emphasis is on the orderly progression of thought from cause to

effect. People of this prayer type prefer neat, orderly forms of the spiritual
life, as opposed to the free-spirit, impulsive attitude of the Franciscan
approach. Their spirituality is centered on the earnest pursuit of all the
transcendental values: truth, goodness, beauty, unity, love, life, and spirit.
Like Saint Teresa of Avila, they are willing to exert superhuman effort to
achieve their goal.

• Books of prayer frequently call the Thomistic method of prayer "discursive

meditation." In this type of prayer, one takes a virtue, fault, or theological
truth and studies it from every possible angle. Change of behavior is an
essential part of this prayer—it doesn't stay at the intellectual level. There
is generally a bias against this type of prayer today because it was so
much in vogue before Vatican II.
PATH OF DEVOTION
• This method uses creative imagination to transpose the world of scripture
to our situation today—as if the scripture passage is a personal letter
from God addressed to each one of us (like Saint Augustine picking up
Romans 13 and reading a message pointed directly at him). The
essential element of this spirituality, going back to New Testament times
(Jesus, Saint Paul, and the early church leaders), is experiencing a
personal relationship with God. Because they read between the lines and
catch what is inexpressible and spiritual, those who follow the path of
devotion best understand symbols and their use in liturgy.

• This path concentrates on meditations that loosen the feelings and

expand the ability to relate to and love others. The stress is on the love of
self, others, and God. Those on this path can follow the four steps of
Lectio Divina: listen to what God says in scripture; reflect prayerfully and
apply it to today; respond to God's Word with personal feelings; remain
quiet and stay open to new insights.
 PATH OF SERVICE
• Like Saint Francis of Assisi, those who follow this path must be free,
unconfined, and able to do whatever their inner spirit moves them to do.
They don't like to be tied down by rules. One thinks of Saint Peter
impetuously jumping into the water to join Jesus as a typical action of
this type.

• Franciscan spirituality leads to acts of loving service which can be a

most effective form of prayer. The gospel stories about Jesus have a
special appeal, particularly the Incarnation of God in the life of Jesus,
which is the center around which Franciscan life and spirituality revolve.
Franciscan prayer is flexible and free-flowing making full use of the five
senses; it is spirit-filled prayer.

• Those on this path can make a meditation on the beauty of a waterfall,

flower, meadow, mountain, or ocean—all of God's creation. There is
more stress in prayer on the events of Jesus' life rather than his
teaching. Like Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, prayer is done with total
concentration as if it is the most important thing to be doing at this
moment. Thérèse did all tasks knowing that each was a part of the total
PATH OF ASCETICISM (Ignatian prayer)

• More than half of churchgoers practice this type of prayer. It involves

imagining oneself as part of a scene in order to draw some practical
fruit from it for today. This spirituality goes back to the Israelite way
of praying in 1000 B.C. in which one remembers and immerses
oneself in an event and thus relives and participates in the event in
a symbolic way.

• That is how Ignatius of Loyola meditated on the Nativity scene: ''I

will make myself a poor, little, unworthy servant, and as though
present, look upon them, contemplate them, and serve them in their
needs with all possible homage and reverence. Then I will reflect on
myself that I may reap some fruit.''
• Saint Ignatius' preoccupation with order was
evident in his Spiritual Exercises, which aimed at
overcoming "disorderly affections, so that [people]
may make a decision that is in keeping with God’s
will," says Thomas Clarke in Playing in the Gospel,
According to Clarke, "Most souls who are willing to
endure the discipline of the 30 days of intense
prayer activity of the Spiritual Exercises are
rewarded with an unforgettable spiritual experience
that frequently changes the whole direction of their
lives."