From Institutional to Experiential Authority: Theophanic Dream Narratives as Highly Individualized Religiosity

Abstract

This study examines theophanic dreams, a specific type of dream, within the context of the transition from institutional religious authorities to individual experiential authority. Theophanic dreams are defined as dreams in which the person claims to have had an encounter with God, to have made contact with God’s voice or image, and to have received direct guidance from Him. The study aims to demonstrate that religious discourse based on such dream narratives constitutes an individual version of religiosity. The study reveals that theophanic dreams represent a highly advanced form of individualization in religion and argues that they can be conceptualized as “highly individualized religiosity.” This concept refers to a form of religiosity in which no institutional authority—neither the church, nor clergy, nor even the holy book—functions as a binding intermediary in the individual's religious life, and the individual accepts their own religious experience as the ultimate authority. The dataset for this study consists of ten dream narratives purposively selected from the open-access Reddit platform. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis methods. The findings reveal the fundamental parameters of individual experiential religiosity based on theophanic dreams as follows: the belief that God still speaks and directly guides individuals; the central role of individual meaning-making processes; the belief that God guides; and the explicit rejection of religious authority and institutional religious practices. However, despite this individualistic stance, there is a tendency within this discourse to instrumentalize the holy book and appeal to mechanisms of social validation. Although this tendency is not strong, it relatively diminishes the maximization of individuality. This is precisely why the proposed conceptualization employs the term “highly” rather than “maximal.” The study suggests that this typology of individual religiosity based on theophanic dreams is qualitatively different from Protestant individualism. The study concludes that theophanic dreams transform the functions of religious institutions, rendering the individual the constructor of their own religious world of meaning. It further predicts that such meaning-generating individual experiences have the potential to spread through social media platforms and to appear beyond the Christian cultural context.