RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: ESSENCE AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL ISSUES
Анна-Валерія Робертівна Лавинюкова
Sophia Human and Religious Studies Bulletin 2023 DOI: 10.17721/sophia.2023.21.8 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
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| Key findings | The article surveys competing theories on whether religious experience has epistemological value, presenting both affirming and denying positions without resolving the debate. It contends that religious experience is a fundamental element of religion across traditions, that the question of its cognitive capacity carries major implications for claims about religion's object, and that contemporary American researchers have contributed most significantly, while Ukrainian scholarship has barely addressed the topic. |
Abstract
The article is devoted to various theories that confirm or deny the epistemological value of a person's religious experience. The works of the classics of the psychology of religion and the works of modern analytical philosophers regarding the cognitive status of religious experience are considered.According to many researchers of religion, the phenomenon of religious experience is one of the fundamental elements of religion because it is present in almost all traditions of all times and peoples, and accordingly it is through the explanation and understanding of religious experience that it is possible to form a more comprehensive idea of the phenomenon of religion in general. For this reason, so many works are devoted to the study of religious experience. One of the discourses that has not lost its relevance for decades is the discourse on the epistemological capacity of religious experience. This question is acute because, on the one hand, having proved that religious experience can be a source of knowledge about its object, we can speak much more confidently in favor of the existence of such an object, on the other hand, an exhaustive refutation of the cognitive capacity of religious experience can lead to to diametrically opposite consequences. The article demonstrates the diversity of approaches to considering the epistemological possibilities of religious experience, both those that testify in favor of its epistemological value and those that deny it, and contains an overview of the most significant conclusions of scientists on this issue. Special attention is paid to the work of modern American researchers as the last ones who significantly contributed to the study of this topic. The study also demonstrates that this topic has the potential for its further consideration and research in our scientific environment, since it is in this way that it is almost not found in the works of Ukrainian researchers.