The Cambridge Companion to Religious Experience

Offers a state-of-the-art contribution by providing critical analyses of and creative insights to the nature of religious experience.

Paul K. Moser (Edited by), Chad Meister (Edited by)

9781108459112, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 July 2020

352 pages, 3 b/w illus.
22.7 x 15.3 x 1.9 cm, 0.5 kg

For centuries, theologians and philosophers, among others, have examined the nature of religious experience. Students and scholars unfamiliar with the vast literature face a daunting task in grasping the main issues surrounding the topic of religious experience. The Cambridge Companion to Religious Experience offers an original introduction to its topic. Going beyond an introduction, it is a state-of-the-art overview of the topic, with critical analyses of and creative insights into its subject. Religious experience is discussed from various interdisciplinary perspectives, from religious perspectives inside and outside traditional monotheistic religions, and from various topical perspectives. Written by leading scholars in clear and accessible prose, this book is an ideal resource for undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, and scholars across many disciplines.

Part I. Characterizing Religious Experience: Interdisciplinary Approaches: 1. Psychology of religion approaches to the study of religious experience Ann Tayes
2. Philosophy of religion approaches to the study of religious experience Phillip H. Wiebe
3. Theology, religious diversity, and religious experience Gwen Griffith-Dickson
Part II. Religious Experience in Traditional Monotheism: 4. Illumined by meaning: religious experience in classical Judaism Howard Wettstein
5. Religious experience in early Christianity James D. G. Dunn
6. Religious experience in traditional Islam William Chittick
Part III. Religious Experience Outside Traditional Monotheism: 7. Religious experience in ancient Confucianism and Daoism Xinzhong Yao
8. Religious experience in Buddhism David Burton
9. Ramanuja's eleventh century Hindu theology of religious experience: an informative, performative, transformative discourse Francis X. Clooney
Part IV. Prominent Themes and Challenges: 10. Exploring the nature of mystical experience Steven T. Katz
11. Miraculous and extraordinary events as religious experience Fiona Bowie
12. Evil, Suffering, and Religious Experience Michael L. Peterson
13. Naturalism and religious experience William B. Drees
14. Meaning and social value in religious experience Mark Owen Webb.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Theology [HRLB], Philosophy of religion [HRAB], Religion: general [HRA]