Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God , livre ebook

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212 pages

English

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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.

Sujets

Religion

Christianity

Philosophy of religion

Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	08 février 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781493434893
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0000€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2022 by Harold A. Netland
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www .ba keracademic .co m
Ebook edition created 2022
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3489-3
Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Dedication
To Keith Yandell (1938–2020)
Contents
Cover
Half Title Page i
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Religious Experience: Mapping the Conceptual Territory 17
2. Religious Experience and Interpretation 49
3. The Critical-Trust Approach 81
4. Edwards and Wesley on Experiencing God 113
5. Experiencing God, Basic Beliefs, and the Holy Spirit 151
6. Mysticism 185
7. Theistic Experiences and Religious Diversity 223
Conclusion 259
Bibliography 263
Index 283
Back Cover 291
Acknowledgments
I have been thinking about the issues in this book for a long time, as they have been part of classes I have taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) and elsewhere over the past twenty-five years. The comments and questions of many people over the years have helped me to sharpen my own thinking and, at times, to modify my views on some issues. I cannot possibly mention everyone here, but special acknowledgment is due to my excellent students at TEDS, especially those in the religious epistemology classes. I am also very grateful for colleagues and friends who were willing to read and comment on drafts of these chapters, including Doug Geivett, Wilson Jeremiah, David Luy, Tom McCall, Justin Mooney, Doug Sweeney, Stephen Williams, and David Yandell. Once again, I am deeply grateful to Jim Kinney, Wells Turner, and the fine production team at Baker Academic for their professionalism, encouragement, and guidance at each stage of the writing, editing, and publication process.
I was blessed in having Keith Yandell (1938–2020), for many years professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, as a friend and colleague (he taught part time at Trinity for many years). The issues in this book were subjects of spirited discussions with Keith on many occasions. I learned much from him. It is with deep appreciation for Keith as an exemplary Christian thinker and a wonderful human being that I dedicate this book to him.
Introduction
I n 1985 my wife Ruth and I moved from the lovely city of Kyoto, Japan, to a community in western Tokyo. We were expecting our first child and did not yet know many people in the area. One day my wife returned from the maternity clinic excited because she had met an American who, like Ruth, was a graduate of the University of Minnesota. Americans were unusual in that part of Tokyo, so Ruth invited her to our home for coffee, anticipating an afternoon of fun conversation about Minnesota and things they had in common. But when the woman came to visit Ruth, the conversation began on a surprising note. Upon entering our home, she immediately turned to Ruth and said, “Let me tell you how I found perfect peace and happiness in Soka Gakkai Buddhism.” She proceeded to give a powerful account of how meditation and practicing Buddhist precepts had completely transformed her life. Ruth was shocked. “Change a few key words here and there,” she remarked, “and it could have been a beautiful Christian testimony!” The woman had met her Japanese husband while he was an international student at the University of Minnesota. Through his influence, she became a Buddhist, and now the couple was living in Tokyo, where she served as a leader in the local Soka Gakkai community.
There are a number of intriguing aspects to this encounter. The woman, a white American from the Midwest, was a convert to Buddhism. She is just one of a growing number of Americans who embrace religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, or Islam, traditions generally not associated with American society. But the American religious landscape today is fluid and very diverse, with conversions and deconversions flowing in many directions.
Furthermore, in her witness to Ruth, the woman immediately went into her personal story about what Buddhism had done for her, how it met her needs by providing peace and happiness. She gave a Buddhist testimony. Many Western converts to Buddhism provide eloquent testimonies about the transformative effects that Buddhist teaching and practice have had on their lives. 1 But listening to reports like these can be disconcerting for Christians who have been taught that such experiences are unique to Christianity and that a personal story about how Jesus changed one’s life is the most powerful evangelistic tool we can employ. The idea that Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims also have compelling personal testimonies just doesn’t seem right.
At the heart of this woman’s story was personal experience. She did not launch into esoteric arguments supporting the Four Noble Truths or the doctrine of dependent co-origination. Nor did she appeal to the divine inspiration of Buddhist sutras, since there is no God in Buddhism to inspire sutras. She simply shared her experience of finding peace, meaning, and happiness through Buddhist meditation. This, too, has parallels with the approach of many Christians who place a premium on a personal experience of God and minimize, if not ignore entirely, any appeal to evidence or reasons in support of Christian teachings.
But if personal experience is the sole or even primary factor in determining whether to accept particular religious claims, there would be little for Ruth to say in response to the woman’s testimony. Her experience provided what she was looking for. Relying only on personal experience, an appropriate response to her would be, “I’m so glad that you have found something that meets your needs and gives you peace and meaning. As for me, I’ve found meaning and peace in Jesus.” End of conversation. Unless one appeals to reasons for religious commitments that are independent of the experience itself, there is little one can say to the woman about why she should abandon Buddhist teachings and accept Jesus as Lord.
Religious experiences are significant, for in one form or another, they are a common and important part of life for many people around the world today. Despite the significant increase in those who self-identify as nonreligious, most people worldwide continue to have religious affiliation of some kind and engage in religious activities. Experiences, both personal and corporate, ordinary and unusual, are a central part of vibrant religious communities.
Experiences are an important aspect of the Christian tradition as well. Christians do not generally speak of having “religious experiences” but they do pray to God, meditate on Scripture, have feelings of guilt due to sin and then experience God’s forgiveness upon repentance, worship God through song and liturgy, hear God’s voice of guidance in perplexing times, experience God’s special peace during trials, and so on. All of this involves experience. Nor is this surprising, for the ongoing daily exercise of faith entails undergoing many kinds of experiences. 2 Simeon Zahl observes that, “To a significant degree, the question of Christian experience of God is the question of God’s presence as it is perceived in human lives in various forms and under various conditions and with various effects.” 3
In addition to ordinary experiences, there are also the more unusual and dramatic experiences of those who have visions of Jesus or dreams in which God is said to communicate directly to them. Scripture itself is full of examples of God or angelic beings appearing in dreams or visions to individuals or groups. The history of Christianity is replete with examples of those claiming to have directly encountered God, Jesus, or an angelic being in a vision, dream, or other perceptual experience. Many people around the world today report experiences in which Jesus appears to them. 4
A testimony—a personal account of how one’s conversion to Jesus Christ through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit results in a dramatically changed life—gives voice to an especially important kind of experience. The narrative of personal transformation, expressed powerfully in the dramatic statement of the blind man in John 9:25—“One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”—has always been significant for Christians. But it took on special meaning in the early modern era with the rise of the Puritans and Pietists. 5 The testimony of a transformed life, accompanied by ongoing personal experiences of God’s presence, has become a central feature of modern Protestant, and especially evangelical, Christianity.
Moreover, for many Christians, it is precisely this personal experience of God that provides the grounds for confidence in the truth of the gospel and one’s acceptance by God. The conviction that comes from personal experience is captured nicely in this early twentieth-century hymn:
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart. 6
Something very important is captured in this hymn. There is a sense in which Christians can legitimately claim to know the reality of God because of their experiences of God. Any biblically faithful perspective should acknowledge this. But, as we shall see, th