What Counts as a ‘Religious Experience?’: Phenomenology, Spirituality, and the Question of Religion
Open Theology October 1, 2018 DeRoo Neal
All experiences express a kind of spirit, a claim found in Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Applying this to the religious allows a distinction between religiosity (a transcendental structure), religions (dynamic forces expressing that structure), and religious phenomena (concrete expressions of religions). Religiosity leads to the development of religion, suggesting that the religious is a dimension of all experience, not a distinct type. This expands the realm of possible subjects of study while narrowing and clarifying the proper object of study for scholars of religion.