C. S. Peirce and Religious Experience
Peirce's Philosophical Perspectives January 1, 1996 Vincent G. Potter
Peirce's theory of experience and cognition resolves two longstanding problems in the analysis of religion: classical empiricism's claim that religious language is cognitively meaningless, and the tension believers feel between needing an authentic experience of God's presence and needing rational argument to legitimate that experience. Experience makes religion concrete and alive, while argument authenticates the experience. Peirce's framework answers both challenges by showing how experience and cognition are integrated.