Skip to content

Introduction to the Special Issue “Imagining Ultimacy: Religious and Spiritual Experience in Literature”

Matthew Wickman

Religions March 5, 2026 DOI: 10.3390/rel17030323 (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Keywords Religious experience Spirituality Meaning existential Action physics Epistemology
Key points Argues that religious and spiritual experiences are commonly characterized by scholars as full, profound, meaningful, and enlightening, and are often described as “special” experiences or matters of “ultimate concern.”

Abstract

Scholars who study religious and spiritual experiences often describe them as full, profound, meaningful, and enlightening: “special” experiences, Ann Taves calls them; for Paul Tillich, they are matters of “ultimate concern [...]