The Study of Religious Experience

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 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.

Foreword by Peggy Morgan, Mansfield College, Oxford 1. Introduction to the Study of Religious Experience Bettina E. Schmidt Section One: Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religious Experience 2. How to Study Religious Experience: Historical and Methodological Reflections on the Study of the Paranormal Fiona Bowie, Wolfson College, Oxford 3. Ethnological and Neurophenomenological Approaches to Religious Experience Michael Winkelman, Arizona State University (retired) Section Two: Methodological Challenges for the Study of Religious Experience 4. Fieldwork and Embodied Knowledge: Researching the Experiences of Spirit Mediums in Brazil Emily Pierini, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David 5. Cultural-Linguistic Constructivism and the Challenge of Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences Gregory Shushan, Ian Ramsay Centre, Oxford University 6. Provincializing Religious Experience: Methodological Challenges to the Study of Religious Experiences in Brazil Bettina E. Schmidt Section Three: Theological and Philosophical Approaches to the Study of Religious Experience 7. Immediate Revelation or the Basest Idolatry? Theology and Religious Experience Robert Pope, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David 8 An Argument from Religious Experience: Origins and Revelations Tristan Nash, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David Section Four: Reflections on Types of Religious Experience 9. Text and Experience: Reflections on 'Seeing' in the Gospel of John Catrin H. Williams, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David 10. Music as Spiritual Experience June Boyce-Tillman, University of Winchester 11. Is it possible to have a 'religious experience' in cyberspace? Gary Bunt, University of Wales, Lampeter

• By (author) Bettina E. Schmidt

"A rich and welcome addition to the literature which has something for anyone with a serious interest in this area of investigation." - Professor Peggy Morgan, Mansfield College, University of Oxford "This book is absolutely ideal for experienced researchers or writers who seek a scholarly interpretation on how the study of religious experience has been incorporated into fields as diverse as psychology, anthropology, theology, and religion." --Lucinda Yang, Reading Religion, December 5, 2017
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