Aspects Of Religious Experience Research Articles

Nilai-Nilai Religius Dalam Peribahasa Madura

The Madurese view of life cannot be separated from the religious values they profess. It is a fact that almost all Madurese are adherents of Islam. Their adherence to their religion is the identity of the Madurese that showed in their language and behavior. One form of language behavior is using Madurese proverbs with religious values. This study aims to determine the religious values contained in the proverbs of Madura. This study uses a qualitative method because the data is descriptive. In addition to analyzing the religious values contained in Madurese proverbs, this study also looks at the possibility of shifting the meaning of Madurese proverbs in the current era. The results of this study demonstrate three aspects of religious values: ideology, ritual worship, and religious experience. On the ideological side, there is a belief in the oneness of God as the absolute ruler in Madurese's life. The ritual aspect found worship behavior, especially the five daily prayers, that should not be abandoned. Aspects of religious experience are found in the presence of awareness and inner wealth in dealing with life's problems

Religious Authenticity and Commitment

In this article I deal with two questions: how does religious authenticity present itself in the era of religious individualization? I find that those who are religiously active tend to emphasize the lived, personal and often embodied aspects of religious experience as evidence of authenticity and yet are likely to also have recourse to other types of claims to authenticity, such as tradition. I also raise the question of religious commitment; if religious authenticity is mostly conceived of in subjectivist terms, how is religious engagement possible over the long term? Here I examine several new types of groups that provide structure and community while leaving considerable space for individual religious experience.

Introduction: The Religious Structure of Phenomena—A Phenomenological Investigation

Introduction: The Religious Structure of Phenomena—A Phenomenological Investigation

“At War ’Twixt Will and Will Not”: On Shakespeare’s Idea of Religious Experience in Measure for Measure

“Religions in Shakespeare’s Writings,” the title of this special issue, can prompt consideration not only of singular exceptions to the normative religious landscape but also of the ideas that support the banner under which a plurality of examples together may be described as “religious.” In recent years, readers of Shakespeare have devoted attention to exploring Shakespeare’s engagement with specific theological and sectarian movements in early modern Europe. Such work has changed how we view the relation between theater and its religious landscapes, but it may be that in focusing on the topical we overlook Shakespeare’s place among such sociologists and philosophers of religion as Montaigne, Hobbes, James, Weber, and Berger. To this end, I argue that in Measure for Measure Shakespeare uses law to synthesize certain aspects of religious experience from divergent corners. And drawing on descriptions of religion from anthropology and phenomenology, I suggest that Shakespeare unites his characters through patterns of action within this deadly exigency that demonstrate a shared experience of religion as a desire for salvation beyond the law.

Against the Stream: religion and mental health - the case for the inclusion of religion and spirituality into psychiatric care.

This paper argues for the inclusion of religion and spirituality in psychiatric care. After discussing the antagonism of psychiatrists and psychologists to religion, I present a critical overview of studies examining the relationships between spirituality, religion and diverse aspects of mental health: depression, suicide, anxiety, delinquency, drug abuse and schizophrenia. The need to assesses the impact of religion in different faith groups is discussed. Measures of religious coping, both positive and negative, may provide a more accurate portrayal as to how individuals deploy religion in their lives than global measures such as belief and attendance. I highlight the fact that there is a dearth of research on ritual, prayer and other aspects of religious experience. While many studies demonstrate positive effects of religion on mental health, others find detrimental effects. Finally I examine the clinical implications of these findings.Declaration of interestNone.

Sociology of religion by Joachim Wach

Joachim Wach (1898-1955), one of classics of religious studies, devoted much of his scientific life to the study of sociological aspects of religious experience, the social functions of religion, the development of sociological challenges of systematic religious and sociological implications of the research methodology of religion. The article presents basic concept of the sociology of religion German-American religious scholar.

Engaging Religious Experience in Stroke Rehabilitation

In this article, I respond to the problem of engaging with religious experience in health care environments. In particular, I illuminate the relational aspects of religious experience in the context of stroke rehabilitation by providing a commentary on data gathered from existing qualitative research and personal narratives in the acute and rehabilitation phases of stroke recovery. In so doing, I address the necessary balance of empathy and alterity in the art of resonant listening. I also provide some critical reflections on interdisciplinary approaches to engaging with religious experience with reference to a largely overlooked group of health care professionals-hospital chaplains.

Religion as schedule-induced behavior.

In this article, I argue that a class of religious behaviors exists that is induced, for prepared organisms, by specific stimuli that are experienced according to a response-independent schedule. Like other schedule-induced behaviors, the members of this class serve as minimal units out of which functional behavior may arise. In this way, there exist two classes of religious behavior: nonoperant schedule-induced behaviors and operant behaviors. This dichotomy is consistent with the distinction insisted upon by religious scholars and philosophers between "graceful" and "effortful" religious behaviors. Embracing the distinction allows an explanation of many aspects of religious experience and behavior that have been overlooked or disregarded by other scientific approaches to religion.

Phenomenal Theology

AbstractWe no longer believe that the mind is a blank slate that simply records sense‐data as given. Over the last two centuries, we have become increasingly aware of the fact that we bring something to what is given to us in experience. It is what we bring to our experience in the form of our conceptual perspective that molds and shapes our understanding or interpretation of the experience. This is especially true of religious experience. What is given in our God experiences is from God, but our interpretive understanding and reaction to our God experiences are uniquely our own. This paper considers several aspects of religious experience from such a phenomenal perspective.

Schicksalsanalyseand Religion Studies

The contemporary study of religion has benefited greatly from dialogues with depth psychology and psychiatry. In this study I consider the work of the Hungarian-born Swiss psychiatrist Leopold Szondi (1893–1986) as a major resource for the study of religion. While not well known in the English-speaking world, Szondi was an eminent medical scholar who produced, under conditions of political persecution, war, and exile, a large, magisterial body of literature known as the Analysis of Destiny (Schicksalsanalyse), which remains largely untranslated. The aim of this essay is (1) to present Szondi’s theory of religion in its biographical and historical context and (2) to discuss specific concepts in his theory, namely, those of the familial unconscious, Cain-Moses polarity, and pontifical ego. These three themes are chosen because they reflect Szondi’s pioneering pedigree studies, his clarification of the psychiatric aspects of epilepsy, and his transpersonal synthesis of depth psychology. The familial unconscious is presented in terms of his concept of genotropism and applied to the symbolic forms of tribal religion. The Cain-Moses polarity is addressed as a paroxysmal-epileptoid ground of evil and justice within the psychology of monotheism. The pontifical ego, representing religious experience at the highest level of relatedness and symbolized by the bridge, is evaluated on the bases of the Indo-Persian and Latin traditions of the sacred bridge. As a systematic psychiatry bearing a religious depth psychology, Szondi’s work has both historical significance and relevance to the contemporary study of religion. He has developed a wide-ranging approach to understanding the psychological, metaphysical, and theological aspects of religious experience.

Religion and Secrecy: A Bibliographic Essay

The events of the early twenty-first century have led to a resurgence of interest in the public and private expression of religion and the role of secrecy in religious traditions. In modern incarnations and throughout history, claims to secret knowledge, the limitations of knowledge of the divine, and private or secrete religious activities have existed in all types of religious traditions. From long-standing mystical traditions in Abrahamic faiths to smaller groups such as Theosophists, secrecy touches on many aspects of religious experience. Sociologists, anthropologists, political theorists, historians, and theologians have undertaken studies of religion and secrecy in general and in reference to particular traditions and localities. What follows is an attempt to highlight major themes of religion and secrecy in history and theory, as well as the implications of September 11, 2001, the War on Terror and the Patriot Act for religious practice and privacy in the United States of America and beyond.

Embodiment in Religious Knowledge

Abstract Increasing evidence suggests that mundane knowledge about objects, people, and events is grounded in the brain's modality-specific systems. The modality-specific representations that become active to represent these entities in actual experience are later used to simulate them in their absence. In particular, simulations of perception, action, and mental states often appear to underlie the representation of knowledge, making it embodied and situated. Findings that support this conclusion are briefly reviewed from cognitive psychology, social psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. A similar representational process may underlie religious knowledge. In support of this conjecture, embodied knowledge appears central to three aspects of religious experience: religious visions, religious beliefs, and religious rituals. In religious visions, the process of simulation offers a natural account of how these experiences are produced. In religious beliefs, knowledge about the body and the environment are typically central in religious frameworks, and are likely to affect the perception of daily experience. In religious rituals, embodiments appear central to conveying religious ideas metaphorically and to establishing them in memory. To the extent that religious knowledge is like non-religious knowledge, embodiment is likely to play central roles.

COMMENTARY: Culture, Gender, Faith:The Social Construction of the Person-God Relationship

K. H. Reich's (this issue) dynamic model of the person-God relationship maps out important pathways of religious development, which may be fruitfully elaborated by the incorporation of narrative processes and relational schemas. Because the narratives and schemas available to any individual for the interpretation of religious experience will be shaped substantially by that individual's culture, gender, and faith community, the model can be strengthened by a more pervasive representation of their influence and of the role played by collective thinking in general. With the incorporation of these perspectives, Reich's model offers researchers a useful heuristic tool for investigating which aspects of religious experience are shared and which differ by gender, faith, and culture.

From unity to atonement: Some religious correlates of Hans Loewald's developmental theory

Loewald's understanding of ego development offers a way to conceptualise, from a psychoanalytic perspective, those aspects of religious experience that can reflect or contribute to the enrichment of the ego, in contradistinction to the defensive and regressive elements of religious experience that have been well detailed in the psychoanalytic literature in the past. In Loewald's view, a dynamic and metabolic interplay between ego and reality characterises the developmental process. With increasing levels of internalisation, differentiation, individuation and integration, ego and reality are restructured into increasingly resilient and durable forms. An ongoing dialectical tension between separation and reunion provides the driving force for development. Loewald's emphasis on the synthetic rather than defensive aspects of ego functioning forms the basis for his characterisation of sublimation as a ‘genuine appropriation’ rather than a defence, thus opening up one way to understand non‐defensive aspects of religious experience from a psychoanalytic perspective. In the course of this exploration of Loewald's view of ego development and its implications for an understanding of religious experience, the author offers perspectives on Freud's views of religion, on some extreme forms of religious fundamentalism, and on the dynamics of ‘mature’ faith as illuminated by Loewald's developmental theory.

Wear ‘n’ tear and repair: the colour coding of mystical mending in Zulu Zionist Churches

AbstractOne of the most conspicuous aspects of religious experience in Zulu Zionist Churches is the bright colours that are worn and otherwise employed. Surprisingly, this highly visible feature has attracted only passing attention from those who have studied these Churches; certainly no serious effort has been made to uncover the ritual significance of their colour symbolism. Against the background of anthropological studies of the therapeutic deployment of colour symbols in Africa and in the light of my own research among Zulu Zionists, this article sets out to show that the colours selected by Zionists from among those of salience to Africans express how they situate themselves within their social universe and plot the process of their response to it in ritual healing.

No Second-hand Religion: Thomas Erskine's Critique of Religious Authorities

After practicing law in Edinburgh for six years, Thomas Erskine (1788–1870) inherited the estate of Linlathen upon the death of his brother, James. Thereby freed to devote his time to theological reflection and writing, he wrote five books between 1820 and 1837 which stated opinions sharply at odds with the prevailing religious positions of early nineteenth-century British thinkers. In his first book,Remarks on the Internal Evidence for the Truth of Revealed Religion, he maintained that the surest sign of Christianity's truth is not to be found in the traditional evidential sources–miracles, fulfilled prophecies, the veracity of the apostles, and so on–but in the intimate relation, or “fittingness,” which inheres between the mode of being recommended in the Bible and the moral, physical, and mental constitution of human beings. This emphasis on the internal and subjective aspects of religious experience characterizes all of Erskine's works and places him, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, at the forefront of a new way of theologizing in Britain which was to come to fruition in the so-called “Broad Church.” Erskine represents an indigenous British “turn to the subject” antedating the widespread appropriation of continental thought by English and Scottish theologians.

Self-Actualization as Related to Frequency, Range, and Pattern of Religious Experience

This study investigated the relationship of frequency, range, and pattern of religious experience to self-actualization. The Religious Experience Measure (REM), a paper and pencil instrument, was constructed to provide measures of Stark's confirming, responsive, ecstatic, and revelational experiences. Validity and reliability studies yielded favorable results. In a classroom setting, the 401 undergraduates who comprised the sample were administered the Personal Data Sheet (PDS), the Personal Orientation Inventory (POI), and the REM. Results showed that high and low self-actualizers alike have religious experiences and that such experiences cannot inherently be viewed as either symptoms of pathology or evidence of positive mental health. However, frequency, range, and pattern are dimensional aspects of religious experience which are differentially related to self-actualization.

Anton T. Boisen’s “Psychiatric Examination: Content of Thought” (c. 1925-31): An Attempt to Grasp the Meaning of Mental Disorder

DURING the early years of PSYCHIATRY, the Rev. Dr. Anton T. Boisen (1876-1965) was among the journal's most regular contributors. Within 14 years he wrote eight articles and four book reviews for PSYCHIATRY, with many of these touching upon the psychosocial aspects of religious experience, empirically considered. Behind Boisen's fondness for PSYCHIATRY was his sense of special relationship to the founding editor, Harry Stack Sullivan. In some ways, this affinity to Sullivan and his world-view can best be appreciated by examining the hypotheses and research questionnaire Boisen used to develop the data for his articles. Likewise, a look at Boisen's detailed questionnaire may help us to understand how humanistic social scientists of an earlier era, the 1920s, attempted to grasp the meaning of mental disorder.

Conceptions of God and the Self

In occidental religious traditions, the idea of the unity of the self and the idea of monotheism have been closely related, though their relation has not often been explicitly considered. In this paper a typology is proposed of several ways in which conceptions of God correlate with particular views of the self. Implications of the several types are explored, and each type is evaluated with respect to its adequacy as an expression of certain aspects of religious experience and with respect to its promise for an adequate understanding of the concept of the self and for the illumination it might provide for a concept of God. The following construction of three types may be viewed as a schematization of different ways of resolving the classical problem of the one and the many. In the first type, the fact of plurality is questioned. The second describes a plural world with many substances. In the third, the real is conceived on a social or developmental model in which the one and the many can be distinguished but cannot be separated. In the course of the examination of each of these types, some of the implications for ontology, epistemology, and ethics will be noted.

Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety. Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine

Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety. Some Aspects of Religious Experience from Marcus Aurelius to Constantine