Religious Experience and Experiential Learning

Abstract

Learning is both experiential and existential and a theory of learning is examined here in considerable detail to show how we interpret religious experiences. This learning provides the basis of theological systems although it is argued here that we cannot learn religious experience, only interpretations that provide us with mediated religious experience. These interpretations usually come from within a culture or a faith community. The interpretations, when they are shared, are secondary experiences: they constitute the basis of theological explanations, which are then taught. But teaching religion academically creates a tension between approaches to study, faith, and experience that has to be resolved in a satisfactory manner.