Religious and Spiritual Experiences

Religious and Spiritual Experiences PDF

Author: Wesley J. Wildman

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2011-01-06

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1139495240

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What is the value of religious and spiritual experiences within human life? Are we evolutionarily programmed to have such experiences? How will emerging technologies change such experiences in the future? Wesley Wildman addresses these key intellectual questions and more, offering a spiritually evocative naturalist interpretation of the diverse variety of religious and spiritual experiences. He describes these experiences, from the common to the exceptional, and offers innovative classifications for them based on their neurological features and internal qualities. His account avoids reductionistic oversimplifications and instead synthesizes perspectives from many disciplines, including philosophy and natural sciences, into a compelling account of the meaning and value of religious and spiritual experiences in human life. The resulting interpretation does not assume a supernatural worldview but incorporates religious and spiritual experiences into a positive affirmation of this-worldly existence.

The Varieties of Religious Experience

The Varieties of Religious Experience PDF

Author: William James

Publisher: The Floating Press

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 824

ISBN-13: 1877527467

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Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature explores the nature of religion and, in James' observation, its divorce from science when studied academically. After publication in 1902 it quickly became a canonical text of philosophy and psychology, remaining in print through the entire century. "Scientific theories are organically conditioned just as much as religious emotions are; and if we only knew the facts intimately enough, we should doubtless see 'the liver' determining the dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does those of the Methodist under conviction anxious about his soul. When it alters in one way the blood that percolates it, we get the Methodist, when in another way, we get the atheist form of mind."

Wired For God?

Wired For God? PDF

Author: Charles Foster

Publisher: Hodder

Published: 2011-12-08

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1444722050

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Human religious experiences are remarkably uniform; many can be pharmacologically induced. Recent research into the neurology of religious experience has shown that, when worshipping or praying, a certain part of the brain, apparently dormant during other activities, becomes active. What does all this mean for those of faith and those with none? In this fascinating book barrister Charles Foster takes a survey of the evidence - from shamans to medieval mystics, to out-of-body experiences and epilepsy, via Jerusalem and middle-class Christianity - and assesses its significance. Written in short, accessible chapters, this is a fascinating tour of religious and mystical experiences and their relation to human physiology.

The Neuroscience of Religious Experience

The Neuroscience of Religious Experience PDF

Author: Patrick McNamara

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-11-06

Total Pages: 319

ISBN-13: 0521889588

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Aimed at researchers and graduate students, this book describes how brain processes support religious expression and provides a current account of the neuroscience of religion.

Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God

Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God PDF

Author: Harold A. Netland

Publisher: Baker Academic

Published: 2022-02-08

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 1493434896

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For many Christians, personal experiences of God provide an important ground or justification for accepting the truth of the gospel. But we are sometimes mistaken about our experiences, and followers of other religions also provide impressive testimonies to support their religious beliefs. This book explores from a philosophical and theological perspective the viability of divine encounters as support for belief in God, arguing that some religious experiences can be accepted as genuine experiences of God and can provide evidence for Christian beliefs.

Religious Experience Reconsidered

Religious Experience Reconsidered PDF

Author: Ann Taves

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-10-23

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 069114088X

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Annotation Ann Taves addresses the subject of religious experience directly and the problems of reductionism and humanistic fears of the sciences indirectly and by example. The orientation of this book is practical more than philosophical.

The Study of Religious Experience

The Study of Religious Experience PDF

Author: Bettina E. Schmidt

Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781781792568

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The renowned scientist Sir Alister Hardy approached the complex field of religious and spiritual experience in a similar disciplined and scientific manner in which he approached natural science. Asking people from the public to send him accounts of first-hand experiences with spiritual or religious powers, he established the Religious Experience Research Centre that has remained at the forefront of the academic study of religious experiences. This book will take his work forward and show how to study religious and spiritual experiences in the 21st century. The Study of Religious Experience aims to show how a range of disciplines - including anthropology, philosophy, religious studies, theology, biblical studies and history - approach the topic of religious experience, how this approach is applied and what contributions they make to the study of religious experience.

A Real-Life Christian Spiritual Journey

A Real-Life Christian Spiritual Journey PDF

Author: Richard Ferguson

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2011-09-20

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 1462016731

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Richard Ferguson grew up a rough kid in a rough neighborhoodand yet he went on to become a Reiki master with a pilots license and two masters degrees. How did he rise above his early circumstances? It started with a godly epiphany high in the sky above the Paci?c Ocean. Since then, he has been a spiritual seeker, and, as the good book says, those who seek will ultimately ?nd. Follow his riotous path in A Real-Life Christian Spiritual Journey. Fergusons Christian transformation was not immediate. Once upon a time, he hated everything to do with religion. Part I uses Fergusons life journey as a template for the paths of all human life. We all go through stages, and each stage equates to who we ultimately will be and what we will believe in. Part II traces the unity of our stages in the earthly realm. Part III sets foot into the great beyond. Ferguson lost his wife to death, but he has come to realize that death is not an ending; it is a graduation to a higher, more joyful existence in eternity. With the guidance of psychologists Erik Erikson and James Fowler, as well as spiritual greats St. Paul and the Buddha, Ferguson looks back on a life well livedproving that when you seek ?rst a higher power, all knowledge will be given to you.