Religious Experience, Justification, and HistoryCambridge University Press, 1999 M11 13 - 238 pages Many philosophers of religion have sought to defend the rationality of religious belief by shifting the burden of proof onto the critic of religious belief. Some have appealed to extraordinary religious experience in making their case. Religious Experience, Justification and History restores neglected explanatory and historical considerations to the debate. Through a study of William James, it contests the accounts of religious experience offered in recent works. Through reflection on the history of philosophy, it also unravels the philosophical use of the term 'justification'. Matthew Bagger argues that the commitment to supernatural explanations implicit in the religious experiences employed to justify religious belief contradicts the modern ideal of human flourishing. For contrast, and to demonstrated the indispensability of history, he includes a study of Teresa of Avila's mystical theology. The controversial supernatural explanations implicit in extraordinary religious experience places the burden of proof on the believer. |
Contents
| 1 | |
CHAPTER 2 The explanation in experience and the explanation of experience | 21 |
CHAPTER 3 Justification by reasons alone | 58 |
CHAPTER 4 Perennialism revisited | 90 |
CHAPTER 5 The miracle of minimal foundationalism | 109 |
Teresa of Avilas mystical theology | 135 |
CHAPTER 7 Modernity and its discontents | 197 |
| 229 | |
| 237 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Alston argues argument Avila best explanation causal chapter Christian claims cognitive coherentism conception of justification constructivist context cultural Descartes describes Devil devotio moderna direct realism divine doxastic practices employ ence epistemic values epistemology event explanatory commitments fact faculties favors Forman foundationalism foundationalist Franks Davis God's historical human humility Ibid includes individual inference inquiry intellectual Interior Castle interpretation James James's justified belief Katz Katz's knowledge language locutions logic mansion means mediate mental prayer metaphor modern mystical experience mystical perception natural object one's particularist principles Peirce perceive phenomenological philosophical position Prayer of Quiet Prayer of Union Proudfoot Pure Consciousness question raptures rationality reasons reject religion religious beliefs religious experience religious perception represents Sellars sensation sense sensory shunyata skepticism social sort soul Spiritual Marriage supernatural explanations Swinburne Teresa Teresa of Avila theism theory theory of justification tion understanding University Press virtues visions why-question William Alston