Religious and Spiritual Experiences

Religious and Spiritual Experiences
Title Religious and Spiritual Experiences PDF eBook
Author Wesley J. Wildman
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 321
Release 2011-01-06
Genre Religion
ISBN 1139495240

Download Religious and Spiritual Experiences Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

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.

An Introduction to Religious and Spiritual Experience

An Introduction to Religious and Spiritual Experience
Title An Introduction to Religious and Spiritual Experience PDF eBook
Author Marianne Rankin
Publisher A&C Black
Pages 303
Release 2008-01-01
Genre Religion
ISBN 0826498213

Download An Introduction to Religious and Spiritual Experience Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Spiritual experiences, mystical and near-death incidences are interpreted from scientific, philosophical and religious viewpoints.

Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God

Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God
Title Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God PDF eBook
Author Harold A. Netland
Publisher Baker Academic
Pages 421
Release 2022-02-08
Genre Religion
ISBN 1493434896

Download Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

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.

The Study of Religious Experience

The Study of Religious Experience
Title The Study of Religious Experience PDF eBook
Author Bettina E. Schmidt
Publisher Equinox Publishing (UK)
Pages 0
Release 2016
Genre Experience (Religion)
ISBN 9781781792568

Download The Study of Religious Experience Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

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.

The Varieties of Religious Experience

The Varieties of Religious Experience
Title The Varieties of Religious Experience PDF eBook
Author William James
Publisher The Floating Press
Pages 824
Release 2009-01-01
Genre Psychology
ISBN 1877527467

Download The Varieties of Religious Experience Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

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."

The Neuroscience of Religious Experience

The Neuroscience of Religious Experience
Title The Neuroscience of Religious Experience PDF eBook
Author Patrick McNamara
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 319
Release 2009-11-06
Genre Psychology
ISBN 1139483560

Download The Neuroscience of Religious Experience Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

Technical advances in the life and medical sciences have revolutionised our understanding of the brain, while the emerging disciplines of social, cognitive, and affective neuroscience continue to reveal the connections of the higher cognitive functions and emotional states associated with religious experience to underlying brain states. At the same time, a host of developing theories in psychology and anthropology posit evolutionary explanations for the ubiquity and persistence of religious beliefs and the reports of religious experiences across human cultures, while gesturing toward physical bases for these behaviours. What is missing from this literature is a strong voice speaking to these behavioural and social scientists - as well as to the intellectually curious in the religious studies community - from the perspective of a brain scientist.

Wired For God?

Wired For God?
Title Wired For God? PDF eBook
Author Charles Foster
Publisher Hodder
Pages 282
Release 2011-12-08
Genre Religion
ISBN 1444722050

Download Wired For God? Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle

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.