THE NATURE OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Religious experiences often involve a sense of ecstasy - this comes from the Greek ex stasis (meaning "out of stillness" or perhaps "outside yourself"). This is a sensation of being removed from ordinary life.
Ecstatic states of mind can be encouraged by prayer and meditation, fasting and exercise, but also by dancing or intoxicating drugs. Most of the world's religions begin with a religious experience: |
Yes, ecstasy is the name of a drug. No, the name's not a coincidence. We'll come back to this later.
|
Moses, the prophet of God
Moses lived in Egypt around 1300 BCE. His religious experience on Mount Sinai led him to defy the Egyptian Pharaoh and lead the Israelites to a "Promised Land" in modern Israel.God describes himself to Moses as "the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" - the same God that Abraham followed centuries earlier. Moses received a revelation from God, which included moral instructions (the "Ten Commandments") and beliefs about God (monotheism - the belief in only one God). For a thousand years, other prophets continued a relationship with God through religious experience. These revelations became the Jewish holy scriptures (Tanakh) and the Christian Old Testament. |
This extract from "Prince of Egypt" (1998) illustrates Moses' theophany
|
Hinduism, a different perspective
Meanwhile, in India, religious experiences led to a belief in many gods and goddesses (polytheism). Around 500 BCE, the Hindu religion developed out of these beliefs. Hinduism developed sophisticated techniques like yoga and meditation to explore religious experience. Many Hindus believe that all the gods and goddesses are really part of one unknowable God (Brahman) who is inside everyone and everything (pantheism). Hinduism doesn't have a founder or a series of prophets. Instead, important figures in history are believed by Hindus to be avatars of various gods (but principally Vishnu). Some Hindus consider Jesus and Gandhi to be avatars as well but one of the most important avatars is Lord Krishna.
|
The science fiction film "Avatar" (2009) features blue-skinned aliens - and Lord Krishna has blue skin. Coincidence?
|
Buddhism, a religion without God
Also around 500 BCE, in northern India, Gautama Siddhartha had a very different religious experience while meditating. He overcame many temptations and distractions and finally achieved a state of Enlightenment, becoming the Buddha. Buddhism seeks a state of Nibbana (extinguishing), a sort of blissful nothingness that is more profound than any god. In Buddhism, and some versions of Hinduism, religious experience comes from insight into universal truths rather than contact with God. |
|
Plato, philosophy as a religion
Meanwhile in Athens (modern Greece), around 300 BCE, the philosopher Plato created a school known as the Academy in which he taught the new discipline of philosophy. Plato believed that reason, rather than revelation from God or gods, could lead people to an understanding of universal truths. Many schools of thought followed from Plato's ideas. One of them, Stoicism, became the unofficial religion of the Roman Empire. Platonism inspired many early Christians, such as Anselm of Canterbury who developed the Ontological Argument. |
Jesus Christ
Around 30 CE, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem. A series of intense religious experiences after Jesus' death led Jesus' followers to claim that Jesus had been raised from the dead (resurrected). Seven weeks later Pentecost was a group (corporate) religious experience when God's Spirit inspired the surviving followers of Jesus to go out into the community, preaching about Jesus' resurrection. Similar experiences are shared by Christians today. These experiences formed the subject of letters and biographies written in the first century after Jesus' crucifixion, which became the Christian New Testament. |
|
The Prophet Muhammad
In 610 CE, Muhammad had a religious experience in a mountain cave near Mecca (modern Saudi Arabia), in which the angel Jibril (Gabriel) commanded him to recite the Quran. Muhammad experienced a series of revelations after this; these revelations became the subject of the Islamic holy scriptures and Muhammad is considered by Muslims to be the last and greatest of the prophets in a tradition going back to Abraham.. |
|
|