The question of the relation between religious experience and Christian belief in God is addressed in radically different ways within contemporary theology and philosophy of religion. In order to develop an answer which avoids the pitfalls of the ‘analytic perception model’ (Alston, Yandell, Swinburne) and the ‘overlinguistic’ model for interpreting Christian religious experience (Taylor, Lindbeck), this thesis offers an approach which combines a phenomenological study of feelings, conceptual investigation of Christian God-talk and ‘belief’-talk, as well as theological, sociological and anthropological perspectives. At the centre of the interpretation developed here is the phenomenological category ‘existential feelings’ which should be seen, it is suggested, as a theologically and philosophically central aspect of Christian religious experiencing. Using this contemporary concept, a novel reading of F. Schleiermacher’s concept of ‘feeling’ is proposed and several kinds of Christian experiencing interpreted (like the experiences of ‘awe’, ‘miracle of existence’, ‘wretchedness’, and ‘redeemed community’). By way of a philosophical understanding of Christian believing in God, this study offers a critical interpretation of the later Wittgenstein’s concept of ‘religious belief’, combining Wittgensteinian insights with Paul Tillich’s notion of ‘dynamic faith’ and arguing against Wittgensteinian ‘grammaticalist’ and ‘expressivist’ accounts. Christian beliefs about God are normally life-guiding but nevertheless dubitable. The nature of Christian God-talk is interpreted, again, by combining the later Wittgenstein’s insights into the grammatical and expressive roles of God-talk with Merleau-Ponty’s emphasis on linguistic innovation and Roman Jakobson’s perspective on the functions of language. Finally, the claim which connects phenomenological, conceptual and theological strands of this study is a recognition of a ‘religious belief-inviting pull’ of the relevant experience. Christian religious belief-formation and concept-formation can be seen as stemming from ‘extraordinary’ existential feelings, where the resulting beliefs about God are largely but not completely bound by traditional meanings.

Almost daily emotional worship pours from a warehouse-sized evangelical church in the small rural community of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica. Within twenty years an evangelical presence has gone from virtually non-existent to standing alongside the Catholic Church in the area’s religious landscape. Scenarios like this are going on throughout Latin America as evangelical faith has become firmly rooted in the region. In this thesis I provide another ethnographic research context to the growing body of literature focused on Pentecostalism/evangelicalism in Latin America. Like others addressing this dynamic, I explore the factors and motivations that lead people to become evangelical. I approach these questions with particular emphasis on the characteristics of evangelical faith as it is constructed and practiced during church services. Through participant observation during church services and interviews with practicing evangelicals in and around Santa Cruz, I highlight the relationship between the characteristics of an evangelical faith and the factors and motivations that lead people to seek it. To be religiously active in the manner of my informants requires deep commitment and is not a faith adopted and practiced lightly. Those who become evangelical and sustain the demanding practice are likely to seek it for spiritual solutions to difficult life situations.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-05-11T14:39:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 humbertoaraujoquagliodesouza.pdf: 664387 bytes, checksum: ea78e4f49b71062980fa8878b4b38b3d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-06-20T20:53:19Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 humbertoaraujoquagliodesouza.pdf: 664387 bytes, checksum: ea78e4f49b71062980fa8878b4b38b3d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-20T20:53:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 humbertoaraujoquagliodesouza.pdf: 664387 bytes, checksum: ea78e4f49b71062980fa8878b4b38b3d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-27 / CNPq - Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Experiência religiosa é um dos temas centrais na ciência da religião. O pensamento de Rudolf Otto possui particular importância para este tema, pois este teólogo alemão buscou alcançar a essência do fenômeno religioso ao propor suas ideias sobre o numinoso e a categoria do sagrado, e ao afirmar a precedência da experiência sobre o conceito. A filosofia de Søren Kierkegaard, por sua vez, é também importante para a ciência da religião devido, entre outros aspectos, à sua perspicaz análise comparativa entre o pensamento filosófico grego e o cristianismo, especialmente nas suas obras publicadas sob o pseudônimo Johannes Climacus. A presente pesquisa pretende propor uma leitura das ideias kierkegaardianas de Instante e Paradoxo Absoluto, desenvolvidas no livro Migalhas Filosóficas, como expressões de uma experiência religiosa, interpretando-as a partir do instrumental teórico encontrado nas obras de Otto, particularmente em O Sagrado. / Religious experience is one of the main themes in Religious Studies. Rudolf Otto’s thought has particular importance to this theme, for this German theologian sought to reach the essence of the religious phenomenon when he proposed his ideas about the numinous and the category of the holy, and when he stated the precedence of experience over concepts. The philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard, on the other hand, is also important to Religious Studies because, among other reasons, it proposes a discerning comparative analysis between Greek philosophical thought and Christianity, especially in its works published under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus. The present research intends to propose a reading of the kierkegaardian ideas of Moment and Absolute Paradox, in the way they are developed in the book Philosophical Fragments, as expressions of a religious experience, interpreting them using the theoretical tools found in Otto’s works, particularly in The Idea of the Holy.

This thesis considers the development of Quakerism from 1647 to 1700. Changes affecting the movement in this period are often explained as the result of the Quakers' desire for socio-political respectability – that is, their desire to reduce persecution and social exclusion. This thesis does not deny the importance of socio-political factors. However, it argues that they have been exaggerated as a historical force, and that theological factors driving change have been comparatively neglected. The thesis therefore explores the Quakers' desire for 'theological respectability', by examining the scope and impact of their constructive engagement with outsiders. The project begins with an investigation into the Quakers' understanding of their personal experience, noting both continuities and underlying theological changes which cannot be explained in socio-political terms – namely, a changed view of divine immanence, a strengthened group identity, and the loss of a sense of prophetic vocation. The rest of the thesis explains these developments in their theological context. The Quakers' engagement in Christological debate forms the central case-study. Individual chapters examine the Quakers’ earliest Christology, first responses to criticism, the early career of William Penn, the intellectual development of Robert Barclay's Vehiculum Dei, the Quakers' place in the early Enlightenment, and the Keithian controversy. In particular, the need to articulate a positive theology of the Incarnation led the Quakers into conversation with many influential figures outside the movement, which in turn encouraged an increasingly derivative understanding of the Light within and more optimistic view of physical matter. These shifts relate directly to the religious changes explored in the first part of the thesis. This study illustrates the necessity of theological analysis as part of historical investigation and provides a sustained intellectual history of seventeenth-century Quakerism, demonstrating its important contribution to the intellectual landscape of the early Enlightenment.

Theology was referred to the study of faith in God and the history of God’s journey with His people and their narratives about God and His journey with them. Theology was applied within the context of religious experience. Practical theology is the hermeneutics of God’s encounter with human beings and their world. It was often referred to as a theology of crisis and practical oriented science and the task of maintaining the connections between the varied stories of life and grounding the stories of Christian Community Practical theology could also be summarised as follows (1) as having its roots in the practice of research methodology. Methodology had developed practical theology into various phases, namely: (1) A personality –oriented moral model. (2) The official model, (3) the so-called application model. (4) An empirical model; (5) A phenomenological model, and (6) a last development called the ecclesiological model. Epistemology, in this project, is referred to the branch of philosophy that studied issues, related to knowledge. It is an empirical (deriving knowledge from experience alone) theory that enabled the practical theology to be referred to as the empirical theology. In this case, it was a scientific knowledge to address the question how do traumatised African clergies therapeutically deal with traumatised African families while being affected, themselves? The post-modern world was using the epistemology framework which was based on narrative hermeneutical emancipatory relationships that was critical of power relationships of modern books. The writer here had adopted narrative hermeneutical emancipatory relationshipsstructural approach to use for both in obtaining information from the organisational structures of the church and the dual church of democracy and theocracy for the emancipation of traumatised African clergies therapeutically dealing with traumatised African families. . The narrative hermeneutical emancipatory relationships discourses were used to solve the problem of traumatised African clergies and traumatised African families through conference approach. Practical theology also strived to understand this experience as a place where gospel of love towards others, were grounded and lived out. Grief was generally viewed as having psychological and social repercussions (driven back) to the status of traumatised African clergies. It was also a significant spiritual condition of sleeplessness, and anxiety, in that, it impacted on relationships with God, self, and others. Pastors, therefore, had a key role to play in the well being of people within the Christian iv communities; including other pastors who suffered from different traumatic experiences. God created them with spirit, soul and body to function, not in exclusion, but included them as one in human body. It was in the light of this understanding that the body of a human being needed to be balanced well with the three (spirit, soul and body), in order to function fruitfully within the community of God. The human being was not a fragmentation but a complete entity, needing healing for his or her whole being: spiritually, socially, psychologically and in relationship with his or her environment. The African clergies did stand in need of healing in order to redirect their lives; following their traumatic experiences. They needed to be healed so that they could carry on with their tasks as pastoral care giving. In traditional African society, health was conceived as more than physical well-being. It was a state that entailed mental, physical, spiritual social and environmental (cosmic) harmony. It was associated with all that were positively valued in life. It was also a sign of a correct relationship between people and their environment, with one another and with the supernatural world. Health was understood both in a social and in a biological sense. When the physical was ill the body was reluctant to help in social life and when the loved some was dead the social life was affected in grief and the body became weak. Pastoral care had the potential to bring healing and hope; through good shepherding. Pastoral care and counselling was historically concerned with healing of the broken-hearted and liberating the people of God in order for them to develop self-esteem. In most of the African churches, the hierarchy of the church tended to treat problems of pastors as personal problems and as having no bearing to the church as an institution at all. Personal problems of pastors were hostility from Christians, lack of money and mismanagement of church funds; inferiority complex; rejection by community, some pastors were favoured, and some were rejected because of their background, misunderstood by church members. In many instances, pastors left their church due to the lack of support and encouragement. At times, it was the church that disowned them on the basis of churches discriminatory practices and personal challenges that distracted such as planning other clergies outside the region from their pastoral duties. Even though the church was not perceived as a building, but as people who worshipped God in the church building, it was beyond that. It was the people, including its pastors that were ministering to people of God in it that constituted a church. The perception was that the church v had no problem to solve, had to be dismissed without any condition. Many pastors experienced and suffered rejection from churches discriminatory practices. God’s general call to all Christians was to serve: the truth that everybody served a master either the devil or God ((Matt.6:24; John 8: 34-36; John 15:19; Romans 6:6-22; James 4:4; 1John 2:15-17; 4:4-6); there was no middle ground. We were either under the dominion of sin and the devil, or we had been ransomed by Jesus Christ of Nazareth and we were then His servants (Galatians 1:10). Pastors before they were called to leadership of God, they were also among those Christians who were called to serve either the devil or God. A shepherd was referred to one employed in tending, feeding and guarding the people of God who were metaphorically known as the flock of God that were under his care and service as an overseer. Shepherding was applied to the pastor, in the fivefold ministry gifts of Jesus of Nazareth, and as means of shepherding the flock of God in the Church. The traumatised African pastors were included in this shepherding. The remedy to the traumatised African clergies and traumatised African families was chosen to be the dual church government of theocracy and democracy; as we intended to reach the eternity of the true God, the creator of the Zoe and Bios Universe, the dual church government of democracy and theocracy of God was regarded as the solution to the churches discriminatory practices through the conference approach. Churches who tried to unite and fight against apartheid’s discriminatory practices were: The Methodist Church of Southern Africa; the Congregational Assembly; the Anglican Church of South Africa; Presbyterians of S A and the Assemblies of God in South Africa. Churches adopted a neutral stance: Evangelical movements were: three types of Evangelical churches, namely: (1) Fundamentals (2) Conservative Evangelical (3) New Evangelicals. The Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) stood as an example of the evangelical or Pentecostal Movement. These churches used conference approach to destroy apartheid discriminatory practices of the then Apartheid Government of South Africa. But the assumption was that the local churches were affected by these discriminatory practices, hence after apartheid they adopted the same discriminatory practices used against their traumatised local African clergies. As they were affected they also needed individual counseling. Pastoral counselling should be always there to address the needs and feelings of priests through seminars, workshops, and fellowship. Members of the church –the elders should be involved in these workshops to present the feelings vi of the congregation towards the priest’s conduct. The Blacks saw apartheid discriminatory practices as “unchristian” apartheid. Therefore when leaders of churches saw the apartheid discriminatory practices as unchristian, the dual church government of democracy and theocracy of God had seen discriminatory practices as unchristian and might be thrown out of the Church by conference approach of the BTGM: The leadership of the Assemblies of God Back to God Movement was the BTGEXCO, BTGTT and the Evangelistic arm the BTGTT, BTGCNC, each committee of the Church normally fell under the supervision and guidance of these above named highest levels in the church hierarchy. The following middle levels were RDCCs, RMFs, BTGCRC and the lower-levels were Elders and deacons or Church Boards and Trans-local Ministries in the low-level in the hierarchy. The leadership of the BTGTT was vision, empowering and releasing people (employing called people: RMFs in middle level, Elders & Deacons and Trans-local Ministries in lower- level. The BTGTT leadership was in leadership similar to Aaron and Levities, Jesus of Nazareth and the 12 Apostles and 70 disciples of Jesus of Nazareth: The BTGCNC in highest hierarchy and BTGCRC in the middle level. The BTGEXCO was the highest level in the hierarchy of elected committees, RDCCs middle-level and Local Church Boards and delegates in lower-level. The hermeneutical emancipatory relationships which were very critical of power relationship that had been used in conference approach to destroy churches discriminatory practices would no longer be used in dealing with individual traumatised African clergies and traumatised African families. Pastoral counselling would use a narrative approach to address the needs and feelings of pastors through seminars, workshops and fellowships to agree that we still live in relationships with the post-modern society well known only in engaging one another in solving problems of the post-modern world. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Practical Theology / unrestricted

Almost daily emotional worship pours from a warehouse-sized evangelical church in the small rural community of Santa Cruz, Costa Rica. Within twenty years an evangelical presence has gone from virtually non-existent to standing alongside the Catholic Church in the area’s religious landscape. Scenarios like this are going on throughout Latin America as evangelical faith has become firmly rooted in the region. In this thesis I provide another ethnographic research context to the growing body of literature focused on Pentecostalism/evangelicalism in Latin America. Like others addressing this dynamic, I explore the factors and motivations that lead people to become evangelical. I approach these questions with particular emphasis on the characteristics of evangelical faith as it is constructed and practiced during church services. Through participant observation during church services and interviews with practicing evangelicals in and around Santa Cruz, I highlight the relationship between the characteristics of an evangelical faith and the factors and motivations that lead people to seek it. To be religiously active in the manner of my informants requires deep commitment and is not a faith adopted and practiced lightly. Those who become evangelical and sustain the demanding practice are likely to seek it for spiritual solutions to difficult life situations.

“A Theological Paradigm – Spirituality – as a belief synthesis in a religious, dogmatic, and philosophical context,” pursues an understanding of spirituality from a theological paradigm within a religious, dogmatic, and philosophical context. Contemporary manifestations of practical and relevant day-to-day situations are taken as vantage points in order to unfold the meaning and implications of stories as metaphors for reality. Two basic statements guide the unfolding of the research process, namely firstly that a belief synthesis is shaped by religion as foundation. It entails that the belief synthesis represents a living framework that incorporates the origin, different definitions, worldwide landscapes, religious movements, as well as the epistemic understanding of spiritual and religious experiences. Secondly, that a belief synthesis incorporates spirituality as an experience. It entails that in this experience of spirituality, the following constitutive dimensions and developments can be distinguished: the relation between religion and spirituality, the revival of the academic discipline spirituality, a working definition of spirituality, which includes a general theory of spirituality and methodological aspects of spiritual development. To develop the research focus on the belief synthesis as a theological paradigm, specific theological and philosophical aspects of the palaeontologist-theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) and the German American systematic theologian Paul Tillich (1886-1965) are investigated. With regard to Teilhard de Chardin, the emphasis falls on his development of a positive process - a new kind of spirit (Hope) – that humans can experience in their contemporary evolving worlds. With regard to Tillich, the emphasis falls on his method of correlation explaining the contents of the Christian faith through existential questions and theological answers in mutual interdependence. The research focus on mentioned theologians brings about a closer but different clarification of the term spirituality as belief synthesis in religion as well as the influence of Christian spirituality and the impact that it had on our quest to understand the Christian experience in Christian spirituality. The closer, but different clarification of the term spirituality is elaborated on and subsequently justified by a discussion of different definitions of Christian spirituality, as well as a tentative indication of the road to a new kind of Christian spirituality - which entails a transformation of Christian spirituality that includes mysticism. Finally, the terms Spirit and Hope are identified and discussed as integral parts of the belief synthesis as theological paradigm. At the same time, their significance respectively for the belief synthesis are indicated. The importance and crucial role of hermeneutics are subsequently elucidated within the theological paradigm of spirituality. The research conclusion culminates in the open statement that more than one religion, philosophy, or intuitive infinite belief can be accommodated in a person’s religious life and can satisfy humans in their expectations, experiences, hopes, and fears, in their vulnerable existence. / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:27:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 THAIS ANTUNES.pdf: 427113 bytes, checksum: d1f598d1e920e59696fe46b0f0c6f195 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-11-24 / The Psychology of Religion within the area of Human Sciences aims at studying the psychological aspects related to human religious experience. It does not seek to define religious behaviour but how the meanings of such behaviour take place inside the psychological structure. Psychologically speaking, religion can either trigger or block human development. For a science that seeks to understand man as a whole, to exclude the religious dimension of the human being from the psychological thinking is not to evaluate and understand the real influence of the religious development in mental functioning, in health and in psychological treatment. In this aspect, the aim of this study was to analyse phenomenologically the religious experience of Catholics in their relationship with personal development. For this, a qualitative approach was used, and, through statements collected in non-directive active interviews, phenomological analyses were made. Four people over 18 were interviewed. They were indicated by religious leaders and considered by them practicing Catholics . The result of the study showed that the participants religious experience is related to personal development. Such a relationship occurs in subjective and specific changes that resulted into the change of the behaviour of the subjects, who reported an improvement in life quality. Thus, we can understand that the religious experience gave these subjects a personal development. / A tarefa da Psicologia da Religi?o no ?mbito das ci?ncias humanas ? estudar os aspectos psicol?gicos relacionados ? experi?ncia religiosa humana Ela n?o procura definir o que ? a conduta religiosa, mas sim como os significados desta conduta se d?o no interior da estrutura psicol?gica. Psicologicamente, a religi?o pode ser uma mola propulsora ou bloqueadora do desenvolvimento humano. Para uma ci?ncia que procura entender o homem na sua totalidade, excluir do pensar psicol?gico a dimens?o religiosa do ser humano, ? deixar de avaliar e entender a real influ?ncia do desenvolvimento religioso no funcionamento mental, na sa?de e no tratamento psicol?gico. Neste sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar, fenomenologicamente, a experi?ncia religiosa de cat?licos em sua rela??o com o desenvolvimento pessoal. Para isso, foi utilizada uma abordagem qualitativa e, atrav?s de depoimentos colhidos em entrevistas n?o diretivas ativas, realizou-se an?lises fenomenol?gicas. Foram entrevistadas quatro pessoas, maiores de 18 anos, indicadas por l?deres religiosos e consideradas, por estes l?deres, cat?licas praticantes envolvidas . O resultado deste estudo mostrou que a experi?ncia religiosa dos participantes est? relacionada com o desenvolvimento pessoal. Esta rela??o ocorre num sentido de mudan?as subjetivas, particulares e singulares que trouxeram como conseq??ncia, mudan?as no comportamento dos entrevistados, os quais relataram sentir uma melhora na qualidade de vida. Dessa maneira, podemos entender que a experi?ncia religiosa proporcionou, para estes sujeitos, crescimento pessoal.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T13:48:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ADELMAN SOARES ASEVEDO.pdf: 276999 bytes, checksum: 108d9b5a8bc8818cde099a1c27eb0fa0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-17 / Mediumship related to the religious experience and mental health is the theme of this paper, which has the spiritual mediumship as its specific object of investigation. The present study was developed based on various fields of human knowledge, such as anthropology, psychopathology, knowledge about mental health and its recent achievements. Concepts of religious experience, mediumship and psychopathology are worked in order to clarify questions which were inserted in this study, and these questions have to do with mediumship, religious experience and mental health. The methodology used was the review of the classical bibliography with concepts and cases that exemplify psychic manifestations. From this review, assumptions were made on the central theme - mediumship, religious experience and mental health. Concepts of umbanda and kardecist spiritism were used to illustrate and identify the diversity of the theme. From the perspective of psychic suffering, mediumship, religious experience and mental health were addressed together in order to show that it is possible to develop mental health experiencing suffering and anguish, since they are welcomed and thus able to restore the notion of the self. This study contributes to the understanding of mediumship as religious experience which leads towards the good exercise of mental health, since individuals who are able to develop their psychic experiences become important for the well-being of the whole community. / A mediunidade correlacionada à experiência religiosa e saúde mental é o tema desta dissertação, que tem como objeto específico a própria mediunidade. O seu estudo envolveu pesquisa em diversos campos do saber como antropologia, psicopatologia, conhecimentos sobre saúde mental e sua conquista. Conceitos de experiência religiosa, mediunidade e psicopatologia são trabalhados a fim de clarear perguntas inseridas neste estudo: mediunidade, experiência religiosa e saúde mental. A metodologia utilizada foi a revisão da bibliografia clássica com conceitos e casuística que exemplificam manifestações mediúnicas. A partir dessa revisão, foram feitas digressões sobre o tema central mediunidade, experiência religiosa e saúde mental. Conceitos da umbanda e do espiritismo kardecista foram utilizados para ilustrar e identificar a diversidade do tema. Sob a perspectiva do sofrimento psíquico, mediunidade, experiência religiosa e saúde mental foram abordadas conjuntamente para mostrar que é possível construir saúde mental vivendo experiências de sofrimento e angústia, desde que bem acolhidas,contribuindo assim para a restauração da própria noção do eu. Este estudo contribui para o entendimento da mediunidade enquanto experiência religiosa que pode caminhar para um bom exercício da saúde mental, visto que indivíduos que conseguem elaborar as suas experiências mediúnicas tornam-se elementos de importância capital para o bem estar da coletividade.