RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

specific experiences such as wonder at the infinity of the cosmos, the sense of awe and mystery in the presence of the holy, feelings of dependence on a divine power or an unseen order, the sense of guilt and anxiety accompanying belief in a divine judgment, and the feeling of peace that follows faith in divine forgiveness. Some thinkers also point to a religious aspect to the purpose of life and with the destiny of the individual. In the first sense, religious experience means an encounter with the divine in a way analogous to encounters with other persons and things in the world. In the second case, reference is made not to an encounter with a divine being but rather to the apprehension of a quality of holiness or rightness in reality or to the fact that all experience can be viewed in relation to the ground from which it springs. In short, religious experience means both special experience of the divine or ultimate and the viewing of any experience as pointing to the divine or ultimate. Additional reading The nature of religious experience William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), a classic philosophical and psychological study; Rudolf Otto, Das Heilige, 9th ed. (1922; Eng. trans., The Idea of the Holy, 1923; 2nd ed., 1950), a study of the nonrational in religious experience; J.M. Moore, Theories of Religious Experience, with Special Reference to James, Otto and Bergson (1938); James A. Martin, Jr., Empirical Philosophies of Religion (1945); and C.C.J. Webb, Religious Experience (1945), contain valuable appraisals and a good bibliography; H.E. Brunner, Wahrheit als Begegnung (1937; Eng. trans., The Divine-Human Encounter, 1943); and Martin Buber, Ich und Du (1923; Eng. trans., I and Thou, 1937 and 1970), express the view that authentic religion is based on personal encounter between man and God; John Dewey, A Common Faith (1934), argues for the religious in experience; E.S. Brightman, A Philosophy of Religion (1940), represents the Personalist view that personhood is the most basic quality of reality; W.E. Hocking, The Meaning of God in Human Experience (1912, reprinted 1963); and J.E. Smith, Experience and God (1968), emphasize the experiential basis of the question of God; and Alister Hardy, The Spiritual Nature of Man: A Study of Contemporary Religious Experience (1979), a collection of 3,000 personal reports. Religious experience and other experience H.D. Lewis, Our Experience of God (1959); and J.E. Smith, Religion and Empiricism (1967), deal with the bearing of different conceptions of experience on religion; Josiah Royce, The Sources of Religious Insight (1912); W.G. de Burgh, From Morality to Religion (1938); and Paul Tillich, Morality and Beyond (1963), treat the relation between religion and morality; Gerardus van der Leeuw, Vom Heiligen in der Kunst (1957; Eng. trans., Sacred and Profane Beauty, 1963), treats the relation between art and religion. The structure of religious experience John MacMurray, The Structure of Religious Experience (1936, reprinted 1971); J.B. Pratt, The Religious Consciousness (1920); Paul Tillich, The Dynamics of Faith (1957); and A.N. Whitehead, Religion in the Making (1926), deal with psychological, theological, and metaphysical aspects; Joachim Wach, The Sociology of Religion (1944), is an indispensable study of the social expression of religious experience; William A. Christian, Meaning and Truth in Religion (1964); F. Ferre, Basic Modern Philosophy of Religion (1967); Ninian Smart, Philosophers and Religious Truth (1964); and J.E. Smith, Reason and God (1961), deal with the issue of the cognitive import of religious experience; J.H. Leuba, The Psychology of Religious Mysticism (1925), argues against its cognitive import; W.E. Hocking, Science and the Idea of God (1944); W.T. Stace, Religion and the Modern Mind (1960); and H.N. Wieman, The Wrestle of Religion with Truth (1927), discuss the relation between religion and science; J. MacQuarrie, God-Talk (1967); I.T. Ramsey, Christian Discourse (1965), and Models and Mystery (1964), represent the linguistic approach to religious experience; Mircea Eliade, Le Mythe de l'ternel retour (1949; Eng. trans., Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return, 1954; rev. ed., 1965) and The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion (1959), interpret religious experience through myth, symbol, and ritual. Situational contexts and forms of expression Evelyn Underhill, Worship (1936, reprinted 1957), invaluable for the meaning of worship and its forms; P. Edwall et al. (eds.), Ways of Worship (1951), treats the liturgies of the major Christian communities; Emile Durkheim, Les Formes lmentaires de la vie religieuse (1912; Eng. trans., The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, 1915, paperback 1961), presents the group theory of religion; C.C.J. Webb, Group Theories of Religion and the Individual (1916), a critique of Durkheim; Mircea Eliade, Birth and Rebirth (1958); Arnold van Gennep, Les Rites de passage (1909; Eng. trans. 1960); and Gerardus van der Leeuw, Phnomenologie der Religion (1933; Eng. trans., Religion in Essence and Manifestation, 1938), on initiation rites and the cycle of sacred life; Joachim Wach, The Sociology of Religion (1944), the best source for the relation between religious and nonreligious groupings. Types of religious experience and personality Gerardus van der Leeuw, Religion in Essence and Manifestation (op. cit.); and Joachim Wach, The Sociology of Religion (1944), and Types of Religious Experience (1951), invaluable for the analysis of religious roles and personalities; Alfred Guillaume, Prophecy and Divination Among the Hebrews and Other Semites (1938); Rudolf Otto, Religious Essays (1931); and John Skinner, Prophecy and Religion (1922; paperback ed., 1961), deal with the meaning of prophecy in the Semitic traditions.