Experience Of Religion

My experience with Christianity began in the Roman Catholic Church of St. Helena’s in South Minneapolis. I grew up a die-hard; attending every week with my mother and sister. I never understood the concept of God, Jesus and the Holy

In William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature and Émile Durkheim’s Elementary Forms of Religious life, the societal implications of religion are examined and analyzed. James and Durkheim possess fairly similar methodologies in their approaches to religion. Both scholars examine religious phenomena based on the experience on the participants. For both of them the “religious experience is the point of departure for formulating a theory of religion” (Joas). James refutes “medical materialism” (James, 19) and argues that it is the extreme cases of religious fervor where true religious experiences will be found and Durkheim introduces his theory on “collective effervescence” (Durkheim, 226) and the experiences

Much of my whole life growing up was doing more good than bad. Much of us probably know about following rules as an access to heaven which I was raised under. Growing up as a child, I was forced in religion because of my grandparents did it and also my parents. My grandparents were so strict with their faith that my parents stop going to church since they made them feel not accepted. At times I asked my parents why we are not going to church and always told me we have other plans today. Not knowing that was the day I stopped going to church and knowing God more for the next 12 years of my life. During these times, I still followed the rules that I was raised under and was truly hard on myself when I did something wrong to the point where I would ground myself (I was 6 at the time).

In recent days I had the opportunity to go back to North Carolina for a few short days. There, with a heavy heart from a loss in the family, I had nothing else to look towards. I’ve always heard of individuals finding peace, faith, blessings, and love of Christ from attending church. I’ve never been a person who put their faith into a higher power. As I was growing up my parents never wanted to force me into any religion without me knowing everything about it and choosing which route to take on my own. As the years treaded on, I never bothered myself to learn about the many different religions and what each stands for. So I used this opportunity as mine to attend church for the very first time. I attended the Roman Catholic services held

I grew up as a Catholic in Vietnam. I have never been in an environment truly united with faith outside of church. As I went to school, we Catholic students were surrounded and outnumbered by other religions or non-believers or agnostics. Though we usually receive an understanding and tolerating stance, some still find it a “cool” and funny act to tease or make fun of one’s religion and beliefs. At sixteen I traveled to America hoping I’ll get a better education. Here, I was introduced to a whole new environment: most of the people were Christians. The opportunity not only boosted my confidence but also enriched my knowledge and understanding in Christian belief. For the first time, it felt like “home” (I found no better way to express this

The history of religion continues to play an important role in defining why certain aspects of religion are the way they are today. Understanding religion’s history can also help one appreciate the importance, value, and determination that certain individuals went through in order for that particular religion to gain freedom and acceptance in society. Throughout history, Christianity has shown exactly this. By learning about its history, one can gain an understanding of how it emerged into being one of the most popular religions in the world. Furthermore, better understanding of the religion, both historically and contemporarily, can help dispel any negative preconceived notions about Christianity.

A new eagerness and ideas of the awakened brought disagreement and isolation over the nature of religious experience. Edward researched the fruit of revival and his conclusion descried the revival in his own fellowship. He surfaced with a perceptive, doctrinal rooted plan of evidences by which improve participants might detect the true meaning of their religious experiences. He didn’t want to describe the mental and spiritual state of the awakened. He desired to establish signs of those who were restored by the spirt of God. “A sense of god’s beauty, sweetness, or holiness that saints apprehend or taste.” (Kling, 1) He later developed a new mindset to understand the renew work of God’s spirit. He defended the revival as God’s work by the legitimacy of the conversations. There was great and amazing work of conversations and debut among the people. He admitted that there were misconduct and glut but suggested advice of a writer. “He proposed “signs” by which an experience might be judged legitimately the

Religion has become a cornerstone of the human experience incorporating itself into almost every aspect of modern life. It has brought understanding and security to billions in a world where both are usually sparse. But, religious conflict has been the source of countless wars, genocides, and overall repression. With thousands of different variations of religions around the world, these times of religious conflict caused each to withstand periods of difficulties allowing them to become what they are today. For example, the Catholic Church faced some of its most prominent changes in early modern Europe with the Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment. These periods of struggle sparked doubt towards the Church and led to one of the most perplexing times in the modern era: the witch craze. Upon the initial presentation of witchcraft, religious leaders began turning to their faith to distinguish between what was right and wrong in the eyes of God. It was quickly presumed to be from the hands of the devil, and that something had to be done with those afflicted by his charms. Spanning from the early fifteenth century to the late eighteenth century, tens of thousands of people across Europe and North America were prosecuted for witchcraft, many of whom were killed. Religious leaders amongst Catholicism and some of its religious denominations such as Protestantism and Puritanism feared the unknown that came with witchcraft and used their religious ideology to justify the

The study of religious and spiritual experiences can be complicated because so much time an effort can be waste by trying to find a meaning to what experience is. Gadmmer states that the concept of experience is one of the most obscure it exits. People are aware that experience is something more than ere actions or behavior. Experience refers to a total way of acting or being and cannot be reduced to its parts, even if those parts can be identified. Religion provides meaning and closure for many. Therefore, specifically religious experiences constitute a more restricted range than the diversity that characterizes spiritual experiences. This parallels the distinction between religious conversion and spiritual transformation, and anticipates

For my project, I decided to discuss divorce with someone who has gone through it. By doing this, I selected questions to ask my interviewee regarding the divorce experience. I also found out whether faith played a role in her personal divorce process or not. My aunt Leonor De Leon is who I chose to interview for my project. Leonor became divorced a year and a half ago after being married for twenty-one years.

A religious experience, which could also be interpreted as a mystical experience due to the lack of objective understanding, could be a type of subjective experience that is strengthened through blind faith. On one side, religious experience may exist in order to defend one’s self against the ‘corrupting’ influence of rationalism and on the other side, religious experience could be an inert feeling that carries the moral of every person. One may say that rationalism protects one’s self against psychosis as well as sinning while the other might say that it is only religious experience that can protect one from delusion and sin. William James and Sigmund Freud offer competing views on the specifics of religious experience and the capabilities of as well as limits of the human knowledge in attempting to understand the ‘religious.’ In terms of whether the religious experience is exclusive or rare or not, James believed that men have a religious appetite, and when this religious appetite is insufficient to allow a person to be faithful, then men seek satisfaction through philosophy and logic though when exclusively sought out for then the man becomes eccentric and exceptional (James 2-5). James claims that scientific judgment alone cannot completely embrace religion and nor can spiritual judgment (James 5). He says that it is with the combination of the two that a clearer

To experience a new religion is to open one's mind to an entirely new world. For my World Religions course, I was asked to visit a place of worship for a religion other than what I was most used to. Upon considering being raised as a Pentacostal Christian, the first idea that came to me after hearing this was for Billy and I to go with our friend Arjun's family to a Hindu temple—since Arjun had moved away recently to go to college however, he was unable to attend.

What is religion? Each person’s definition of religion is different. Each person’s faith is different. This is a question that has been asked for centuries, and regardless of the answer given there is no right or wrong answer. Religion can be defined as a group of people who have shared beliefs who feel their life has purpose or meaning. This feeling or belief that their life has meaning can come from outside of themselves, as well as within. Taking this one step further, these shared beliefs put into action in the form of worship, can be easily identified because they happen regularly. It can be said the Primal religions were in fact not religions. Some may argue Confucianism is not a religion. Others may say Taoism is not a

To begin with, religion is one aspect of my life that I could not be happy without. My brothers and I have formed this conviction in the Lord from being taught the right way. My father is the minister at Sims Hill Christian Church and he has always taken us to every church service held as long as we were able. It has always been a priority in the Jones’ household to read the Bible and to present ourselves in the correct manner. Without God, the pursuit of happiness

Growing up I always lived in a religious household. We always prayed before we ate, prayed before we went to bed, and always went to church on Sunday and Wednesday night. While I never questioned these actions and never tried to rebel against them, I still didn’t understand the importance of them either. I was merely walking in my parents footsteps, doing what my parents told me, singing along to the children’s songs in Sunday school, gave a tithing of my allowance every Sunday, but my life was void of the real meanings of my actions. This went on for years. Because I had not yet read through the Bible to understand why these actions had any meaning, they were just things I did all the time and I thought that was normal and that was what it meant to be a Christian.