Religious Experience-Community essay

So previously when I sent this, I did terribly (50/100) I have now redone it so hopefully it's good enough.

The term ‘religious experiences’ produces a wide variety of different types. Indeed, Alister Hardy’s work in compiling a database of different types showed as much. He discovered a whole variety of differences in types, length, participants etc. He noted that religious experiences brought a ‘new dimension to life’. By saying this, Hardy meant that religious experiences go far beyond what can be tested scientifically.

Religious experience plays an important part in faith. They are two parts to this; belief-that and belief-in. Belief-that refers to statements that can be objectively true. An example of this is ‘I believe that Jesus existed’. This is true because it has basis in historical truth. However, belief-in would be ‘I believe in Jesus’. Instantly this type of statements extends far beyond the physical world with a mention of trust that leads to the metaphysical. The influence of religious experiences can mean that a person moves from belief-that to belief-in. In addition to this, hearing of another person’s religious experience or testimony can result in this shift.

Another example of religious experience strengthening faith to belief-in is the speaking in tongues, or glossoladia. Such experiences lead people on a wide scale into faith. Faith then leads into more religious experiences.

Religious experience may also result in a revelation. This means that something that was not known previously has been revealed to humanity. This can happen either directly through God or rather indirectly through gaining insight. Revelation may also be a moment of realisation at the end of reflection, such as prayer or meditation. There are two categories of revelation. The propositional view deals with a body of truths being produced about God or the ultimate true. A non-propositional concept goes beyond the obvious and rather deals more with human interpretations of certain things from the spiritual point of view.

Religious experiences can be useful for the community as a whole. For example, most religions have a pivotal figure who are credited with having started up the religion. This has usually been due to a religious experience they have encountered. For example, the angel Gabriel appearing to Muhammad and his recitation of the verse that would eventually become the Qur’an. Such experiences confirms the person’s appointment and their ministry and reassures their followers that they have been chosen for this role-we can say that these experience helps to affirm the belief system. Religious experiences can also convince people that religious beliefs are true and convince them to change their belief or behaviour.

In addition to this, religious experiences help to promote the faith value system.

This means that ideas about the faith have been revealed to the individual through religious experience. In Judaism, Moses is called the ‘lawgiver’ because of the fact that he received the The Commandments on Mount Sinai that were revealed to him by God. These tell a believer how to behave through explicit moral guidance. An example of these are commands not to murder and dietary rules, such as not to eat non-kosher food. They also provide rules as to what to wear.

As religion very much involves the getting together of believers, we can say that religious experiences benefit the community.

William James said that religious experience was at the very heart of a religion. This is particularly true in the religion as a community. Religions undergo different ways of worship that all result in religious experience which aids cohesion in the community. Community gathering as religious experiences are especially important because it paves the way for further religious experiences. An example of this is the community celebrating a religious festival. An example of this is Pesach in Judaism. Not only is the community strengthened through the acting out of the story, but also the asking of the questions about the origins that takes places between the young and the old. This gathering of the religious community helps to create a sense of unity through collective fellowship. It also gives believers a common identity.

Rituals that are shared with the community helps to strengthen cohesion. As Momen said ‘ritual is probably the most common source of religious experience for the majority of people’. Even though ritual itself is a religious experience, those such as reading of sacred texts may trigger further religious experiences or revelations. Another ritual is the communion in Christianity. Certainly in Catholicism it is considered to be a highly important religious experience as it is when it is believed that as a result of all members of the community gathering, the bread and wine literally becomes the body and blood of Jesus. The nature of this religious experience (the coming together of all believers) helps to strengthen cohesion in the religious community because it unites all believers in their shared beliefs and gives followers a sense of belonging. Lastly, the recitation of beliefs of the faith such as in the Creeds or the Shema as a religious experiences helps to strengthen cohesion of the community because not only are this belief being reaffirmed, but they are being reaffirmed as one which demonstrates that there is something special about the community affirmed their beliefs gathered together.