Download or read book Religious and Spiritual Experiences written by Wesley J. Wildman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2011-01-06 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Study of Religious Experience written by Bettina E. Schmidt and published by Equinox Publishing (UK). This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Varieties of Religious Experience A Study in Human Nature written by William James and published by Xist Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-04 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Best Nonfiction Masterpiece of the 20th Century? “There are two lives, the natural and the spiritual, and we must lose the one before we can participate in the other.” - William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is not a book about a specific religion. The author, psychologist Williams James does not try to convince the reader one religion is better than the other. He doesn’t even make a case for atheism and the scientific approach. The book is in fact about human nature and how we experience religion at a psychological level. Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes

Download or read book The Varieties of Religious Experience written by William James and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 1902 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Varieties of Religious Experience is certainly the most notable of all books in the field of the psychology of religion and probably destined to be the most influential [one] written on religion in the twentieth century," said Walter Houston Clark in Psychology Today. The book was an immediate bestseller upon its publication in June 1902. Reflecting the pluralistic views of psychologist-turned-philosopher William James, it posits that individual religious experiences, rather than the tenets of organized religions, form the backbone of religious life. James's discussion of conversion, repentance, mysticism, and hope of reward and fears of punishment in the hereafter--as well as his observations on the religious experiences of such diverse thinkers as Voltaire, Whitman, Emerson, Luther, Tolstoy, and others--all support his thesis. "James's characteristic humor, his ability to put down the pretentious and to be unpretentious, and his willingness to take some risks in his choices of ancedotal data or provocative theories are all apparent in the book," noted Professor Martin E. Marty. "A reader will come away with more reasons to raise new questions than to feel that old ones have been resolved."

Download or read book An Introduction to Religious and Spiritual Experience written by Marianne Rankin and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spiritual experiences, mystical and near-death incidences are interpreted from scientific, philosophical and religious viewpoints.

Download or read book Religious Experience Reconsidered written by Ann Taves and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-28 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the sciences of the mind can advance the study of religion The essence of religion was once widely thought to be a unique form of experience that could not be explained in neurological, psychological, or sociological terms. In recent decades scholars have questioned the privileging of the idea of religious experience in the study of religion, an approach that effectively isolated the study of religion from the social and natural sciences. Religious Experience Reconsidered lays out a framework for research into religious phenomena that reclaims experience as a central concept while bridging the divide between religious studies and the sciences. Ann Taves shifts the focus from "religious experience," conceived as a fixed and stable thing, to an examination of the processes by which people attribute meaning to their experiences. She proposes a new approach that unites the study of religion with fields as diverse as neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, and psychology to better understand how these processes are incorporated into the broader cultural formations we think of as religious or spiritual. Taves addresses a series of key questions: how can we set up studies without obscuring contestations over meaning and value? What is the relationship between experience and consciousness? How can research into consciousness help us access and interpret the experiences of others? Why do people individually or collectively explain their experiences in religious terms? How can we set up studies that allow us to compare experiences across times and cultures? Religious Experience Reconsidered demonstrates how methods from the sciences can be combined with those from the humanities to advance a naturalistic understanding of the experiences that people deem religious.

Download or read book Spirituality and Wellbeing written by Bettina E. Schmidt and published by Equinox Publishing (Indonesia). This book was released on 2020 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shows how the relationship between wellbeing and spirituality is studied by a range of disciplines including religious studies, theology, anthropology, psychology and history while also linking the debate to various religious traditions including Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Afro-Brazilian religion and even paranormal experiences.

Download or read book Spirituality in the Flesh written by Robert C. Fuller and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-09-08 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is now generally accepted that the structure and function of the human body deeply influence the nature of human thought. As a consequence, our religious experiences are at least partially determined by our sensory organs, emotional programs, sexual sensibilities, and the neural framework of our brains. In Spirituality in the Flesh, Robert C. Fuller investigates how studying the body can help us to answer the profoundest spiritual questions. Why is it that some religious traditions assign spiritual currency to pain? How do neurochemically driven emotions, such as fear, shape our religious actions? What is the relationship between chemically altered states of consciousness and religious innovation? Using recent biological research to illuminate religious beliefs and practices, Fuller delves into topics as diverse as apocalypticism, nature religion, Native American peyotism, and the sexual experimentalism of nineteenth-century communal societies, in every case seeking middle ground between the arguments currently emanating from scientists and humanists. He takes most scientific interpreters to task for failing to understand the inherently cultural aspects of embodied experience even as he chides most religion scholars for ignoring new knowledge about the biological substrates of human thought and behavior. Comfortable with the language of scientific analysis and sympathetic to the inherently subjective aspects of religious events, Fuller introduces the biological study of religion by joining together this era's unprecedented understanding of bodily states with an expert's knowledge of religious phenomena. Culling together insights from scientific observations, historical allusions, and literary references, Spirituality in the Flesh offers a bold look at the biological underpinnings of religion and opens up new and exciting agendas for understanding the nature and value of human religiosity.

Download or read book Science and Spiritual Practices written by Rupert Sheldrake and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I have personally adopted many of the practices Rupert describes in his book and experienced more love, joy, empathy, gratitude, and equanimity as a result. We are all indebted to Rupert, who has tirelessly brought us deep insights from both science and spirituality.” ―Deepak Chopra The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious and spiritual practices generally make people happier and healthier. In this pioneering book, Rupert Sheldrake shows how science helps validate seven practices on which many religions are built, and which are part of our common human heritage: meditation, gratitude, connecting with nature, relating to plants, rituals, singing and chanting, and pilgrimage and holy places. Sheldrake summarizes the latest scientific research on what happens when we take part in these practices, and suggests ways that readers can explore these fields for themselves. For those who are religious, Science and Spiritual Practices will illuminate the evolutionary origins of their own traditions and give a new appreciation of their power. For the nonreligious, this book will show how the core practices of spirituality are accessible to all. This is a book for anyone who suspects that in the drive toward radical secularism, something valuable has been left behind. Rupert Sheldrake compellingly argues that by opening ourselves to the spiritual dimension, we may find the strength to live more fulfilling lives.

Download or read book The Study of Religious Experience written by Bettina E. Schmidt and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book The Varieties of Religious Experience A Study in Human Nature written by William James and published by Litres. This book was released on 2021-12-02 with total page 753 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Religious Experience and Experiencing Religion in Religious Education written by Ulrich Riegel and published by Waxmann Verlag. This book was released on 2018 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Europe, religious and spiritual education happens in a context which is at the same time increasingly secular and religiously plural. This places the problem of religious experience on the agenda. Today most students of religious and spiritual education lack appropriate experiences and show different opinions about what religion or spirituality could be. This setting raises several questions: How can religious experience be conceptualized in a context of religious plurality and secularity with the traditional religious traditions as just one option among others? How does lived religion contribute to such a conceptualization? Do the concepts of spirituality and implicit religion give way to a new understanding of religious experience? How can be grasped religious experience beyond the traditional religious practices? Do traditional empirical methods still fit? Which concepts and methods can we utilize in bringing religious experience into religious or spiritual education?

Download or read book Cognitive Models and Spiritual Maps written by Jensine Andresen and published by Imprint Academic. This book was released on 2000 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book throws down a challenge to religious studies, offering a multidisciplinary approach - including developmental psychology, neuropsychology, philosophy of mind, and anthropology.

Download or read book Contemporary Varieties of Religious Experience written by Lynn Bridgers and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1902, William James's Varieties of Religious Experience is considered a classic in religious studies and the psychology of religion. But how has James's classic study weathered decades of development in psychology and behavioral sciences? Do the assertions about religious experience in the Varieties still ring true in light of neuro-cognitive and neuro-hormonal research, resiliency studies, studies of temperament, and traumatic studies? By extending William James's own research throughout the century since its publication this volume seeks to answer those questions. In doing so, it revolutionizes our understanding of James's own view of psychology and reveals the extraordinary value of James's perspective for religion, psychology, and spirituality today. In doing so, it offers vital insights for pastoral care and faith development at both the individual and congregational level. From the Introduction by James Fowler: Drawing on the authenticity of her own experience, Bridgers carries us into a remarkably clear and well documented account that traces William James's evolution as a psychologist, philosopher, and a deeply engaged inquirer into the dynamics of spiritual development and transformation... This book has a major contribution to make. Bridgers's study illumines the horizons of contemporary research in the study of religious experience, in all its varieties, and in the context of globalization.

Download or read book The Varieties of Religious Experience written by William James and published by Courier Dover Publications. This book was released on 2018-10-17 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classic study of spirituality by the influential psychologist examines the meaning of the term "divine," reality of the unseen, the divided self and the process of its unification, mysticism, more.

Download or read book Every Time I Feel the Spirit written by Timothy Nelson and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dreams and visions, prophetic words from God about "dusty souls," speaking in tongues while "in the spirit"—narratives of these and similar events comprise the heart of Every Time I Feel the Spirit. This in-depth study of a Black congregation in Charleston, South Carolina provides a window into the tremendously important yet still largely overlooked world of African American religion as the faith is lived by ordinary believers. For decades, scholars have been preoccupied with the relation between Black Christianity, civil rights, and social activism. Every Time I Feel the Spirit is about black religion as religion. It focuses on the everyday experience of religion in the church, congregants' relationships with God, and the role that God and Satan play in congregants' lives—not only as objects of belief but as actual agents. It explores the concepts of religious experience and religious ritual, while emphasizing the attributions that people make to the operation of spiritual forces and beings in their lives. Through interviews and field work, Nelson uncovers what religious people themselves see as important about their faith while extending and refining sociological understandings of religious ritual and religious experience.

Download or read book Psychoanalysis and Religious Experience written by William W. Meissner and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this provocative book, W. W. Meissner, a Jesuit and psychoanalyst, attempts to bring about a rapprochement between psychoanalysis and religious thinking. Utilizing the resources of modern psychoanalytic insight, he examines Freud's views on religion, explores the dialectical relationship between psychoanalysis and religion, and applies more contemporary concepts in psychoanalysis to the understanding of religious experience. Dr. Meissner has written a book which is consistently interesting, often challenging, and impressive for its wide range of scholarship in two fields not often combined in the same work...Dr. Meissner has done us a service in this scholarly work by demonstrating how two perspectives of the human condition have over the course of the last several decades come to similar conclusions.-Otto F. Thaler, M.D., Journal of the American Academy of Religion A rich and stimulating book addressing important issues that lie at the intersection of psychoanalysis and religion.-Paul C. Vitz, Contemporary Psychology Meissner has made a challenging useful contribution that will be pondered, applied, and debated.It will undoubtedly also achieve the goal of bringing about more understanding between analysts and theologians.-Lowell Rubin, M.D., Newsletter, Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute