Religious Experience: Experience of Transparency and Resonance
Open Philosophy January 31, 2020 Theissen Gerd
Religious philosophy needs criteria for judging religious experience as traditions lose normative power. L. Wittgenstein and R. Carnap, in their empirical critique, accepted two forms of religious experience described with optical and acoustic metaphors—denying their cognitive truth but affirming their life value. An extended concept of truth, covering all correspondence between experience and reality, can find truth in experiences of “transparency” and “resonance.” These differ from aesthetic experience in depth and cognitive interpretation, referring what is experienced to a final reality—a “summum ens,” the whole world, or something beyond. This ultimate reality unifies “being” and “value,” making everyday experiences transparent and motivating a resonant life.