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Introduction

Religious Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2020

By
Paul K. Moser  and
Chad Meister
Edited by
Paul K. Moser  and
Chad Meister
Paul K. Moser
Affiliation:
Loyola University, Chicago
Chad Meister
Affiliation:
Bethel University, Indiana
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Summary

The Introduction identifies some important questions about religious experience, and it considers Tolstoy's position that relates religious experience to the meaning of human life. It also comments on the relation between religious experience and evidence for God's existence and on the bearing of science on religious experience. In addition, it looks at the bearing of religious disagreement on religious experience. Finally, the Introduction offers summaries of the book's chapters.

Keywords

Religious experience OntologyEpistemologyTransformationGodMonotheismMeaning of lifeTolstoy
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Religious Experience , pp. 1 - 22
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Dawkins, Richard. River out of Eden. New York: Basic Books, 1996.Google Scholar
Dennett, Daniel. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. New York: Viking Penguin, 2006.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. “A Philosophy of Life,” in New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. New York: Carlton House, 1933.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen Jay. “Impeaching a Self-Appointed Judge,” Scientific American 267 (1992): 118–21. www.stephenjaygould.org/reviews/gould_darwin-on-trial.html.Google Scholar
Gould, Stephen Jay. Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life. New York: Ballantine, 1999.Google Scholar
James, William. Varieties of Religious Experience. New York: Modern Library, 1902.Google Scholar
Moser, Paul K. Understanding Religious Experience: From Conviction to Life’s Meaning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.Google Scholar
Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy. Translated by Harvey, J. W.. London: Oxford University Press, 1923.Google Scholar
Smart, Ninian. The Religious Experience of Mankind, 3rd ed. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1984.Google Scholar
Tolstoy, Lev (Leo). My Confession. 1882. (London: Oxford University Press, 1921 [trans. Aylmer Maude]. New York: Norton, 1983 [trans. David Patterson]).Google Scholar

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