Synopses & Reviews
This book addresses fundamental questions in the philosophy of religion. Can religious experience provide evidence for religious belief? If so, how? Keith Yandell argues against the notion that religious experience is ineffable, while advocating the view that strong numinous experience provides some evidence that God exists. He contends that social science and other non-religious explanations of religious belief and experience do not cancel out the evidential force of religious experience. The core of Yandell's argument concerns the formulation and application of an appropriate principle of experimental evidence. A final chapter considers the relevance of nonexperimental, conceptual issues. An attractive feature of the book is that it does not confine its attention to any one religious cultural tradition, but tracks the nature of religious experience across different traditions in both the East and the West.
Review
"This is a meticulous, thoughtful, and progressive analysis and defense of the central question: Does religious experience provide evidence for religious belief?" Michael Pomedli, Review of Metaphysics"This is a meticulous, thoughtful, and progressive analysis and defense of the central question: Does religious experience provide evidence for religious belief?" Michael Pomedli, Review of Metaphysics" . . .this is a book which breaks new ground in the field, as well as putting some familiar points in a new context. It is to be warmly welcomed." --Mark Wynn, International Philosophical Quarterly
Review
"This is a meticulous, thoughtful, and progressive analysis and defense of the central question: Does religious experience provide evidence for religious belief?" Michael Pomedli, Review of Metaphysics
Review
'\"...an important contribution to contemporary scholarship in the philosophy of religion, especially to current discussion of the rationality of religious belief....As thorough as it is wide in scope, The Epistemology of Religious Experience is a valuable and challenging volume of new scholarship.\" James R. Beebe, Saint Louis University\"This is a meticulous, thoughtful, and progressive analysis and defense of the central question: Does religious experience provide evidence for religious belief?\" Michael Pomedli, Review of Metaphysics\" . . .this is a book which breaks new ground in the field, as well as putting some familiar points in a new context. It is to be warmly welcomed.\" --Mark Wynn, International Philosophical Quarterly'
Review
" . . .this is a book which breaks new ground in the field, as well as putting some familiar points in a new context. It is to be warmly welcomed." --Mark Wynn, International Philosophical Quarterly
Synopsis
This book addresses a fundamental question in the philosophy of religion. Can religious experience provide evidence for religious belief? If so, how? Keith Yandell argues against the notion that religious experience is ineffable, while advocating the view that strong numinous experience provides some evidence that God exists. An attractive feature of the book is that it does not confine its attention to any one religious cultural tradition, but tracks the nature of religious experience across different traditions in both the East and the West.
Synopsis
Arguing against the notion that religious experience is ineffable, while advocating the view that it can provide evidence of God's existence, this text contends that social science and nonreligious explanations of religious belief and experience do not cancel out the force of the experience.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-366) and index.
Table of Contents
Introduction: is our task impossible or impolite?; Part I. The Experimental Data: 1. Religious experience, 'East' and 'West'; Some basic epistemological concepts; Part II. The Challenge from Ineffability: 3. The outlines of ineffability; ineffability relative to particular languages; 5. Reasons in ineffability's favour; Part III. The Social Science Challenge: 6. Nonepistemic explanation of belief; 7. Non-religious explanation of religious belief; Part IV. The Religious Challenge: 8. Self-authentication and verification; 9. Religious practices and experimential confirmation; Part V. The Argument from Religious Experience: 10. The argument in twentieth-century philosophy; 11. The principle of experimential evidence; 12. The argument triumphant; Part VI. Enlightenment and Conceptual Experience: 13. Are enlightenment experiences evidence for religious beliefs? 14. Conceptual experience and religious belief.