Personal Reflection On Religious Experience

Describe your personal experience of God and the understanding of God you derive from biblical, theological and historical sources.

Theology will impact my life in a new way because it will challenge me to dive deeper into the word of God than just scratching the surface. Moreover, it will provide a framework that can be used to reveal God’s presence and revelation in the scriptures, as well as, the many aspects of my life. I did not study theology before, as this class is my first academic opportunity to do so. Actually, I had originally thought of theology as another term used to discuss the Bible and debate interpretations on verse or themes of the Bible. I believed it was based mostly on opinion through personal revelation. This was also a time in my life where I loosely believed that interpretations were founded from personal epiphanies of the reader. Thankfully,

Mark R. McMinn’s (2011) Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling establish a way to bring Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality to Christian Counselors. He introduces a replica of how to integrate the three disciplines in the counseling office. The purpose of the book is to instruct counselors how to integrate categories of Psychology, Theology and Spirituality into Christian Counseling. McMinn (2011) contends that many challenges both professional and personal face Christian Counselors on the frontier of intradisciplinary integration. (Intradisciplinary integration is the new emerging frontier for Christian Counselors).

In John Updike’s short story “Varieties of Religious Experience”, he illustrates four different perspectives on the day of the 9/11 attacks and allows for the readers to understand the minds of multiple people on a day that will forever be remembered in American history. Updike seizes the opportunity to see through various vantage points and it also allows for the readers to have wider sense of faith in the short story. The opportunity of multiple perspectives suggests that there could be something more from a religious experience especially in an ever-evolving technology driven society. Honestly, when I first began to read the short story I was confused as to why Updike would use multiple points of view, but once I had finished I knew that what Updike had done was something only very gifted writers can do. Through each character, Updike allows for the readers to see what happened and what emotions people of different religions felt on the day of 9/11. Updike’s use of multiple protagonists allows for the reader to see each religious, physical, and mental perspective from that fateful day.

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

I would describe my own personal faith to be Christian- Catholic, the same as my parent’s faith. I grew up being catholic. I was baptized, did my first communion and even did my confirmation. I believe in one God; but I also believe in God as a Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe in Angels, Saints, and the old and new testament. I believe in Mary, God’s mother, and I also believe in all of Jesus’s apostles.

Just what is theology? This question can have a wide variety of answers, from irrelevant facts about God thought up by men centuries ago, to complicated theories discussed by scholars. Typically, the average 21st century man does not consider theology as relevant. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Theology by definition has the characteristics of both expounding the truth, and impacting the believer with that truth (Himes, 2011). Therefore, theology and the church are intricately combined, in that the church embodies the revelation of God, and is reality, not theory (Himes, 2011). A personal practical theology must begin with revelation, not the individual (Himes, 2011), and proclaim

My faith journey, began when I was born I was basically born and raised to be a Christian going to church every Sunday. To praying every night, to accepting the body a blood a Jesus, to understanding that all the holidays weren’t just for the gifts but it was meant for my savor Jesus Christ.

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.

Studies of Jesus primarily focus on the duality of Jesus and how he is able to be both human and divine at once. This subject was disputed at the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 between the

I've been attending church for as long as I can remember. The earliest time I remember going to church was when I was in pre-school, and I attended the same church until high school. Sundays were routine, we attended church, went out to eat after with other members of the church, and then went home to watch either football or baseball (sports being my second religion). Skipping church was never an option, nor did I really want to miss it. I had good friends at church, and was genuinely interested in the bible and the stories we read.

What religion am I? In my life, I have been told many things about my religion. My mother is a Roman Catholic, while my father is Jewish. I have learned about both religions, and I have tried to practice both as best I could, but I am now faced with the decision; which one am I?

¶ 324.9a - Describe your personal experience of God and the understanding of God you derive from biblical, theological, and historical sources.

In my life I have never been a person to attend church or religious ceremonies. I have gone twice to church and I personally didn’t like because I think that one doesn’t need to go to church to worship god. I believe that as long as you have faith god would never abandon you. My experience in the Jehovah`s Witness ceremony was very interesting because they are very similar to Christianity but their believes are different.