Numinous ExperienceLO: I will know about Numinous types of experience

Intro to Numinous• What did you find?• Research Rudolf Otto (1869-1937). In addition,

research ONE of the following:• Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834)

• Martin Buber (1878-1965)

You must present:

• who they were (background info)

• what they said in relation to Religious Experience

• anything interesting that you might think is relevant for the group.

Some of you will be selected to present to the group tomorrow.

Active reading – pg 36-37

Speed dateGo around and explain what you have found under a time limit

http://www.teachit.co.uk/custom_content/timer/timer.html

Checklist

• If we were to do a checklist of all of the characteristics of a Numinous experience, what would they be?

• What are other understanding of religious experience? I.e. Schleiermacher and Buber?

Numinous Experience

• Numinous religious experiences are experiences of awe and wonder in the presence of an almighty and transcendent God.

• It is an awareness of human nothingness when faced with a holy and powerful being.

• The name comes from the Latin ‘numen’ which means to bow the head.

• These experiences provide a reference point for believers to interpret the world through experience and the beliefs attached to it.

• Though reflections are attempted ultimately the encounter with God is inexpressible.

Rudolf Otto• Otto describes numinous experiences as being ‘mysterum; tremendum’.

E.g. Mystery and awe-inspiring terror in the presence of an overwhelming being.

• Despite this we are drawn to the experience because of fascinans, a strange fascination.

• The numinous experience is key to understanding the spirituality of many religions. Otto claimed that ‘there is no religion in which it does not live as the innermost core and without it no religion would be worthy of the name.’

• Otto was influenced by Kant and recognised that God could not be known via sensory experience or logical argument. For Otto God is ‘wholly Other’. We can’t know God unless he reveals himself to us. This numinous experience is felt on an emotional level.

• Otto says these experiences are a ‘once and for all’ experience. This implies their can be no further religious experience.

Other understandings of religious experience

• Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) agreed with Otto that religious experiences are primarily emotional. These emotions are deeper than reason.

• For Schleiermacher, the experiences are not numinous but are at their core a feeling of absolute dependence upon the divine. It is this awareness of absolute dependence upon ‘a source of power that is distinct from the world’ that is at the heart of religion.

• Theology arises afterwards as people reflect on their experiences.

Other understandings of religious experience

• Martin Buber (1878-1965) viewed religious experiences as being analogous to intimate personal relationships that he called I-thou relationships.

• This differs from the I-it relationship that we have with objects or when we treat people as objects.

• The I-thou relationship is a mutual interaction. We may experience such I-thou relationships when we encounter nature, in deep friendships and most importantly, by experiencing God.

Numinious?

That was a most unsettling experience!

For debate

• ‘The unsettling nature of numinous experiences means that they are less likely to be something that our minds have made up.’

Quote

• ‘It is the emotion of a creature submerged and overwhelmed by its own nothingness in contrast to that which is supreme above all creatures’. Rudolf Otto.

• What does Otto means by this quote?

Tell me three things...

• you have learnt today

• you have done well

• the group has done well

• you would like to find out more about

• you know now that you didn’t know an hour ago