Religious Experience

Recap What is a religious experience? What are James’ four categories of religious experience? What are Swinburne’s five categories of religious experience? What is the Principle of Credulity? What is the Principle of Testimony? What is the Vicious Circle Challenge? What is the Conflicting Claims Challenge?

Today’s aims To explain and evaluate propositional and non- propositional revelation To analyse the concepts of verbal and divine inspiration To discuss a past exam question

Scripture The concept of revelation through sacred writings

Scripture If the bible is the Word of God, do we have to obey it?  Leviticus 19:27-28  Leviticus 20:9  Deuteronomy 21:18-21  Matthew 5:27-30  Mark 10:21 Could a person believe that the Bible is the Word of God but not follow these teachings?

Revelation in the Bible For Christians, the Bible reveals God, but it might do this in different ways:  Propositional Revelation  Non-propositional Revelation  Booklets, p.68

Task – 15 minutes Read p  What is propositional revelation?  What is non-propositional revelation?  Which approach to interpreting the bible is better and why do you think this?

PropositionalRevelation Factualsentences One-waycommunication by God Faith = believing the statements Preserves the truth from heresy

Propositional Revelation StrengthsWeaknesses

Criticisms of Propositional Revelation The human mind could make mistakes and fail to record the revelation accurately Psychologists reject the idea that the human mind can simply receive information passively How can the hearer know which revelations are true and which are false? Different religions claim propositional revelation has given different truths – how can these contradictions be resolved? There is no way to verify that revelations really do occur

Communication What are the key differences between the following types of communication?  A government report  An article in the Guardian  A story told in a dramatic way  An article in the Sun  Someone looking deeply into your eyes but not saying a word Which type of communication might be closest to the way that God is thought to communicate with humanity?

Non-PropositionalRevelation Insight into God’s nature Two-waycommunication Faith = understanding the message Bible is a human book Historical and cultural context

Non-Propositional Revelation Does the idea that the events in the Bible have been written down as stories by human beings undermine its claim to be the word of God? If the Bible reflects the culture in which it was written does this undermine its message?

Discussion Can you tell the ‘story’ of how you spent the last week in an unbiased way, without leaving anything out?

Non-Propositional Revelation StrengthsWeaknesses

Criticisms of Non-Propositional Revelation Non-propositional revelation reflects human understanding and interpretation and is therefore open to error There are no objective facts to appeal to – it is very subjective

What does it mean to claim that the Bible is inspired by God? Verbal inspirationDivine inspiration Every word in the Bible comes from God directly – it is God speaking to us The Bible is divinely inspired but not every word is literally from God Does this mean we should stone people to death? How do we interpret the revelation? Does this mean the creation story is literal? How should we understand moral laws? Can the Bible be disobeyed?Should we re-interpret the Bible in light of modern views? Booklet, p.70

Discussion Is the revelation in scripture more reliable than other forms of revelation, such as seeing a vision?

Task – 10 minutes Answer the questions on p.71  This is about giving your own views to help you analyse what we’ve looked at today

Homework To what extent can God reveal himself through sacred writings? (35 marks)  Fill in the gaps in the essay with your own arguments / analysis