Religious Experience Reconsidered as an example of theoretical assertiveness in the study of religion

The publication of Religious Experience Reconsidered is one more indication that the incoherent mixture of coyness and braggadocio that for decades has characterized the study of religion and other disciplines, is finally giving way to honest theoretical assertiveness. Taves’ book is a careful treatment of experience deemed religious that manages to do justice to the recurrent features of what people tend to experience in such contexts, while also taking into consideration the culture-bound components of those experiences. What is especially welcome is that instead of seeking to establish a bland middle ground, she has pursued an independent path, making use of scholarship in a variety of disciplines, especially psychology of religion.     

From 1799 to 2009: Religious Experience Reconsidered-background, argument, responses

This introductory essay to a review symposium on Religious Experience Reconsidered by Ann Taves (2009) briefly reviews some main stages of the discussion of religious experience in the study of religion\s with special attention to the Romantic tradition and its apologetic legacy and to more recent attempts to revise, rehabilitate, or challenge this key category. The essay then summarizes the argument and structure of Taves' book and highlights main points of the responses.     

Experience as site of contested meaning and value: The attributional dog and its special tail

Religious Experience Reconsidered was premised on the idea that experience is a site of contested meaning and value for subjects (and scholars). Although the concept of specialness has drawn considerable attention, my goal in writing the book was to update efforts to use attribution theory to bridge between religious studies and the psychology of religion. I intended the focus on micro-social processes to complement analysis at the macro-social level. The need for a broader, more generic second order term, such as specialness, emerged in the context of working out an attributional approach and can and should be extended more broadly. While anything can be set apart as special and an analysis of the politics of deeming is essential, we can still ask if there is empirical evidence to suggest that humans are more likely to set some things apart than others within or across cultures. When we take experience as a site for study, we do not have to limit ourselves to describing the range of views held by our subjects, but can also legitimately seek to explain experience in terms that make sense to us as researchers. The breaking of taboos against explaining experience in naturalistic terms will only have apocalyptic consequences if we assume a special/ordinary binary; viewed on a continuum, we can still find special meaning and value in experiences that are not protected by taboos.     

Metaphor,Religious Language,and Religious Experience

Is it possible to talk about God without either misrepresentation or failing to assert anything of significance? The article begins by reviewing how, in attempting to answer this question, traditional theories of religious language have failed to sidestep both potential pitfalls adequately. After arguing that recently developed theories of metaphor seem better able to shed light on the nature of religious language, it considers the claim that huge areas of our language and, consequently, of our experience are shaped by metaphors. Finally, it considers some of the more significant implications of this claim for our understanding of both religious language and religious experience.     

Collaboration between Science and Religious Education teachers in Scottish Secondary schools

The article reports on quantitative research that examines: (1) the current practice in collaboration; and (2) potential for collaboration between Science and Religious Education teachers in a large sample of Scottish secondary schools. The authors adopt and adapt three models (conflict; concordat and consonance) to interrogate the relationship between science and religion (and the perceived relation between these two subjects in schools) (Astley and Francis 2010 Astley, J., and L. J. Francis. 2010. “Promoting Positive Attitudes towards Science and Religion among Sixth-Form Pupils: Dealing with Scientism and Creationism.” British Journal of Religious Education 32 (3): 189–200.10.1080/01416200.2010.498604 [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The findings indicate that there is evidence of limited collaboration and, in a few cases, a dismissive attitude towards collaboration (conflict and concordat and very weak consonance). There is, however, evidence of a genuine aspiration for greater collaboration among many teachers (moving towards a more robust consonance model). The article concludes by discussing a number of key factors that must be realised for this greater collaboration to be enacted.     

The phenomenology of religious humility in Heidegger’s reading of Luther

The return to religion in contemporary continental philosophy is characterized by a profound sense of intellectual humility. A significant influence within this discussion is Heidegger’s anthropology of finitude in Being and Time and his later critiques of onto-theology. These critiques, however, were informed by Heidegger’s earlier phenomenology of the lived experience of religious humility performed alongside his reading of Martin Luther’s theology. This article shows that for Luther and Heidegger, religious humility is foremost an affection structured according to the enactment of one’s dissimilitude from God and resulting existential tribulation. During a seminal period in his development, Heidegger’s phenomenology of humility changed from an Eckhartian conception of detachment culminating in the unio mystica to a Lutheran conception of humiliation and Anfechtung. Heidegger’s break from a mystical phenomenology of humility parallels Luther’s own break from that tradition, and anticipates contemporary developments in the continental philosophy of religion.

Comparing Biographical Backgrounds of Religious Founders and Converts to Those Religions: An Exploratory Study

This paper is an exploratory, preliminary investigation of the possible links between the biographical backgrounds and developmental trajectories of major religious figures such as Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Buddha, and Baha’u’llah, and the backgrounds of those who convert to these religions (or certain groups within these religions) in the West. This article ends with the hypothesis that in terms of biographical backgrounds and motivations for conversion, followers’ narratives resemble those of their religious leaders in some areas.

Religious Experience and the Transformation of Narcissism: Kohutian Theory and the Life of St. Francis of Assisi

Kohut proposed that the narcissistic personality could be transformed in the therapeutic environment by an empathic approach on the part of the analyst. Within the analytic setting, specific transference phenomena arise spontaneously, allowing the analysand to confront infantile grandiose fantasies and unresolved narcissistic wounds. Using the story of the life of St. Francis of Assisi, this paper illustrates how religious experience––specifically the ongoing encounter with a transcendent other––can provide the “therapeutic” milieu in which the mirroring, idealizing, and twinship transferences described by Kohut can arise, and within which pathological narcissism can be transformed into the “cosmic narcissism” of the healthy personality.

Subject benchmarking,Orders in Council and European Directives

This paper describes a range of professional self-regulation and of higher education (HE) developments which form a backdrop to decisions the profession/s of psychotherapy (and counselling) may wish to take on issues around professional self-regulation. The developments described are: - the codification of ‘subjects’ and their qualifications in HE by the Quality Assurance Agency, especially ‘Subject Benchmarking’ led by ‘Subject Associations’, and the opportunities this offers, - European Directives of various sorts relating to regulated professions and the impact the relevant Directive would have if the profession was regulated, - the legislative history of professional self-regulation up to the present day and ‘Orders in Council’ made under the Health Act, 1999, and - criteria and safeguards for professions to enjoy statutory self-regulation and their implications. The paper concludes with how these developments interact and options for how the profession could respond to them including a separate Order or joining the Health Professions Council     

普兰丁格的矛盾——普兰丁格的宗教排他论与有保证的基督教信念

该文针对美国当代宗教哲学家普兰丁格(Alvin Plantinga)“有保证的基督教信念”①的宗教真理认识论,指出,按照普兰丁格的排他论的宗教真理认识论,并不能保证基督教信念在面对其他宗教信念时具有优越性,因为其他宗教也可以宣称它们符合普兰丁格的宗教真理标准,从而它们的信念为真。因此普兰丁格的认识论是自相矛盾的、失效的。相比之下,普兰丁格的老师阿尔斯顿(William Alston)的实践的和生存论的宗教真理进路更为可取。     

一支突起的异军——再议宗教社会学及其在中国的进展

本文从宗教的社会性及其特性来强调宗教社会学是一门独立的社会科学,并再次论述了这门学科的研究方法。宗教社会学近两年来在中国的发展,可谓异军突起,本文从四个方面评述了这种异,并提出随着学科的发展,学科界线的走向问题。