The Experts below are selected from a list of 82155 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Alexander A. Fingelkurts - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Is our brain hardwired to produce God, or is our brain hardwired to perceive God? A systematic review on the role of the brain in mediating Religious Experience
Cognitive Processing, 2009Co-Authors: Alexander A. FingelkurtsAbstract:To figure out whether the main empirical question “Is our brain hardwired to believe in and produce God, or is our brain hardwired to perceive and Experience God?” is answered, this paper presents systematic critical review of the positions, arguments and controversies of each side of the neuroscientific–theological debate and puts forward an integral view where the human is seen as a psycho-somatic entity consisting of the multiple levels and dimensions of human existence (physical, biological, psychological, and spiritual reality), allowing consciousness/mind/spirit and brain/body/matter to be seen as different sides of the same phenomenon, neither reducible to each other. The emergence of a form of causation distinctive from physics where mental/conscious agency (a) is neither identical with nor reducible to brain processes and (b) does exert “downward” causal influence on brain plasticity and the various levels of brain functioning is discussed. This manuscript also discusses the role of cognitive processes in Religious Experience and outlines what can neuroscience offer for study of Religious Experience and what is the significance of this study for neuroscience, clinicians, theology and philosophy. A methodological shift from “explanation” to “description” of Religious Experience is suggested. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion between theologians, cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists.
Susan L. Dehoff - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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mystical Religious Experience and psychosis contours of the problem
2018Co-Authors: Susan L. DehoffAbstract:This chapter explicates the challenges to diagnosing psychosis and mystical Religious Experience based on the criteria of one psychological approach alone. It introduces the five psychological approaches that will contribute, along with Reformed Theology beliefs, to the new paradigm for distinguishing mystical and psychotic Experiences introduced in Chap. 7. The views of mystical Experience expressed by Reformed Theology are presented, and a Reformed pastor’s call to ministry is used to demonstrate how a mystical Religious Experience could be interpreted as a psychotic or authentic mystical Experience.
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research presbyterian church usa views on mystical Religious Experience mre
2018Co-Authors: Susan L. DehoffAbstract:This chapter presents qualitative research. It gives highlights of the 2016 Presbyterian Panel Study as it relates to doctrinal beliefs and current denominational concerns. The author’s 2011 research in which 20 Presbyterian pastors/pastoral counselors in the Presbytery of Boston were interviewed regarding how they interpret profound Experiences reported to them is presented in full. Participants were asked to tell about Experiences they interpreted as mystical Religious, indicative of a mental health problem, or too confusing to interpret either way. Multiple examples of each kind of Experience are given along with methods and source norms participants used in making interpretations. Categories for various mystical Religious Experiences are introduced.
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psychoanalytic views of mystical Religious Experience
2018Co-Authors: Susan L. DehoffAbstract:This chapter looks not only at how Freudian psychoanalysis views mystical Religious Experience but also at the Experiences in Sigmund Freud’s life that contributed to his negative view of religion. During his lifetime other psychoanalytic theorists revised his theory, Carl Jung and Ronald Fairbairn being the two prominent revisionists considered. Chapter 2 explores how their revisions impact psychoanalytic understanding of psychosis and mystical Religious Experience.
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Distinguishing Mystical Religious Experience and Psychotic Experience: A Qualitative Study Interviewing Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Professionals
Pastoral Psychology, 2015Co-Authors: Susan L. DehoffAbstract:Mystical Religious Experience and psychotic disorders share non-rational Experiences. Often it is difficult to distinguish one from the other. This qualitative research study interviewed 20 members of the Presbytery of Boston of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to explore what clergy consider to be mystical Religious Experiences and the methods they employ to distinguish such Experience from psychotic Experience. Results revealed that they were able to make clear distinction between these two types of Experience. Considerations they used to interpret non-rational Experiences included the after-effects of the Experience, personal Experience, Scripture, and Presbyterian beliefs. They also used the characteristics of psychotic behavior congruent with diagnostic criteria given in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual – IV , used by mental health professionals.
Roger Hendrix - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Religious Experience in the age of digital reproduction
St. John’s Law Review, 2005Co-Authors: Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger HendrixAbstract:This essay is based on a lecture delivered by Professor Gedicks at the St. John’s University College of Law on March 29, 2004, as part of the St. John’s Law Review Honorarium Lecture Series. We are grateful for the comments and criticisms of Travis Anderson, Jack Balkan, Lou Bilionis, David D ominguez, Jim Faulconer, Bill Marshall, John Orth, Doug Parker, and Jane Wise. We also benefitted from comments and criticisms at a workshop presentation of an earlier version of this paper to the Brigham Young University Law School faculty. Lee Andelin, Kristen Kemmer, and (especially) Kim Pearson provided excellent research assistance. Finally, we owe special thanks to David G regory, who encouraged Professor Gedicks to write on this topic, and was instrumental in generating the invitation to lecture on it.
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Religious Experience in the age of digital reproduction
Social Science Research Network, 2004Co-Authors: Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger HendrixAbstract:A Religious Experience is an extraordinary event that occurs against the backdrop of ordinary life, infusing that life with a meaning it would not otherwise have. Mass culture is now replete with portrayals of such Experiences. Spiritually-themed television shows, movies, books, music, and fashion are now common and even popular. This is not necessarily good news for religion and Religious Experience. What mass culture portrays as sacred may be merely an imitation, resembling more the ubiquitous feel-good self-affirmance of popular psychology than authentic communion with the divine. On the other hand, the appropriation and portrayal of Religious Experience by mass culture may be the inevitable and desirable effect of a postmodern digitized world. The digital revolution has served up an inexhaustible supply of Religious information and images, stimulating individuals to an awareness of spiritual choices and possibilities that were unimaginable only a generation ago. At the same time, postmodernism has underlined the implausibility of achieving social consensus on reality and truth in the face of widespread and persistent Religious difference. The coincidence of epistemological indeterminacy with direct individual access to vast global fields of information empowers individuals to choose for themselves from among the innumerable versions of the real and the true now available to them. In this world, the appropriation and portrayal of the sacred by mass culture liberalizes and democratizes Religious Experience, erasing the boundaries placed on such Experience by traditional denominations, and permitting believers to define for themselves the spiritual meaning of their lives. We argue that there are no reliable means of distinguishing classic Religious Experiences, like Moses's encounter with Jehovah in the burning bush, or St. Paul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, from the Religious Experiences of ordinary people triggered by vehicles of mass culture. We lack access to the template of original Religious Experience, and thus the means for determining which Religious Experiences are authentic, and which merely imitations. The combination of vast information about diverse Religious Experiences made accessible by the digital revolution, and epistemological uncertainty brought on by contemporary postmodern sensibilities, has moved Religious Experience beyond the control of denominational and institutional religion, to the control of the masses. Marketplace democracy now determines what is real and true, and only religions that adapt themselves to this reality will survive as mass phenomena.
Frederick Mark Gedicks - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Religious Experience in the age of digital reproduction
St. John’s Law Review, 2005Co-Authors: Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger HendrixAbstract:This essay is based on a lecture delivered by Professor Gedicks at the St. John’s University College of Law on March 29, 2004, as part of the St. John’s Law Review Honorarium Lecture Series. We are grateful for the comments and criticisms of Travis Anderson, Jack Balkan, Lou Bilionis, David D ominguez, Jim Faulconer, Bill Marshall, John Orth, Doug Parker, and Jane Wise. We also benefitted from comments and criticisms at a workshop presentation of an earlier version of this paper to the Brigham Young University Law School faculty. Lee Andelin, Kristen Kemmer, and (especially) Kim Pearson provided excellent research assistance. Finally, we owe special thanks to David G regory, who encouraged Professor Gedicks to write on this topic, and was instrumental in generating the invitation to lecture on it.
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Religious Experience in the age of digital reproduction
Social Science Research Network, 2004Co-Authors: Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger HendrixAbstract:A Religious Experience is an extraordinary event that occurs against the backdrop of ordinary life, infusing that life with a meaning it would not otherwise have. Mass culture is now replete with portrayals of such Experiences. Spiritually-themed television shows, movies, books, music, and fashion are now common and even popular. This is not necessarily good news for religion and Religious Experience. What mass culture portrays as sacred may be merely an imitation, resembling more the ubiquitous feel-good self-affirmance of popular psychology than authentic communion with the divine. On the other hand, the appropriation and portrayal of Religious Experience by mass culture may be the inevitable and desirable effect of a postmodern digitized world. The digital revolution has served up an inexhaustible supply of Religious information and images, stimulating individuals to an awareness of spiritual choices and possibilities that were unimaginable only a generation ago. At the same time, postmodernism has underlined the implausibility of achieving social consensus on reality and truth in the face of widespread and persistent Religious difference. The coincidence of epistemological indeterminacy with direct individual access to vast global fields of information empowers individuals to choose for themselves from among the innumerable versions of the real and the true now available to them. In this world, the appropriation and portrayal of the sacred by mass culture liberalizes and democratizes Religious Experience, erasing the boundaries placed on such Experience by traditional denominations, and permitting believers to define for themselves the spiritual meaning of their lives. We argue that there are no reliable means of distinguishing classic Religious Experiences, like Moses's encounter with Jehovah in the burning bush, or St. Paul's encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, from the Religious Experiences of ordinary people triggered by vehicles of mass culture. We lack access to the template of original Religious Experience, and thus the means for determining which Religious Experiences are authentic, and which merely imitations. The combination of vast information about diverse Religious Experiences made accessible by the digital revolution, and epistemological uncertainty brought on by contemporary postmodern sensibilities, has moved Religious Experience beyond the control of denominational and institutional religion, to the control of the masses. Marketplace democracy now determines what is real and true, and only religions that adapt themselves to this reality will survive as mass phenomena.
Zarema Safina - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the alister hardy question on Religious Experience some evidence for the validity of bashkirian and russian translations
Mental Health Religion & Culture, 2017Co-Authors: Christopher Alan Lewis, Svetlana Galyautdinova, Elena Filimonova, Zarema SafinaAbstract:Previous research on Religious Experience has employed the Alister Hardy question: “Have you ever been aware of or influenced by a presence or power, whether you call it God or not, which is differ...
