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Mystical Experience, Religious Doctrine and Philosophical Analysis

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Mystical Experience, Religious Doctrine and Philosophical Analysis 2 [3 181- MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE, RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE ,AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS P. C. Almond, M. A. (Lancast.er), B.D. (Hons) (London), Th. L. A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Phi tosophy The Department of Philosophy The University of Adelaide De cember, 1978. ''i,\"6-¡'(,,r-í.¡r',,' ii t ti/'i I;t . i rt ¡t(¡ ' { TABLE OF CONTENTS P age III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.. ..... Vi INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF UNITY AND DIVER- SITY IN RELIGIONS I CHAPTER ONE : R. C. ZAEHNER: THE VARIITIES OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 30 CHAPTER TWO : N. SMART: THE MYSTICAL, THE NUMINOUS AND RELIGIOUS TRADI- TIONS... 64 CHAPTER THREE: W. T. STACE: EXTROVERTIVE AND INTROVERTIVE MYSTICISM tlt CHAPTER FOUR: R. OTTO: THE MYSTICAL, THE NUMINOUS AND METAPHYS I CS 156 CHAPTER FIVE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS 204 CHAPTER SIX : MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE AND ITS IN- TERPRETATION: AN ANALYSIS OF POSSIBLE MODELS. 213 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE VARIETIES OF MYSTICAL EX- PERIENCE: A PHILOSOPHICAL PROLEGOMENON 254 STLECT BIBLI OGRAPHY 295 SUMMA R Y The spiritual vacuum generated by the decline of t.he Christian world-view in the West has creaLed for Western man the opportunity of taking up any one of a variety of modes of spirituality. Religious diversity has become a fact in Western religious Iife. This increasj-ng pluralism has led to a real-isation of the philosophical problem in- herent in it, a probl-em crystallised in the so-called 'con- flicting truth cl-aimsr problem:- The different religions appear to make different and incompatible cl-aims about the nature of ultimate re afity, of divinity, ofl human nature , and cosmi c destiny . This study al-l-ows us to pursue this problem by exam- ining the relationship between certain runiversaf' forms of religious experience, especialJ-y mystical experience, and the doctrines of various rel-igious traditions. There- fore, the study has a two-fold aim. Firstly it. proposes ' to give a philosophical analysis of what is involved in and assumed by the phenomenological determination of the nature of religious experience. And secondly, in the Iight of this, iL intends t.o examine the possibility of resol-ving the probl-em of conflicting truth cfaims by ap- peal to religious experience. To t.his end, we examine a number of seminaL writers who, having undertaken the task of determining the nature of religious expe rfence, 1n so doing, both illuminate the probl-em ofl conflicting truth cfaims and reflect the diffi- cul-ties inherent in its resolution. In the latter part of the Introduction and in the first four chaptersr we exam- ine the accounts of religious experience offered by S. Radhak rishnan, R . C . Zaehner, W. T. Stace, N. Smart and R. 0tto. Simultaneously, we analyse Lheir accounts of the reÌationship between religious belief and rel-igious doc- trine s . In the first section of Chapter Fiver wB undertake a brief comparative analysis of the major features of these accounts and summarise the similarities and differences between them. In the second section, we review the at- tempts made by these authors to resofve the problem of truth and religions and concl-ude that the problem of con- flicting truth cfaims has not been ful 1y resolve d by any of the theories previously examined. In the next chapter, we argue that. this fail-ure is especially due to a conceptual impasse generated by inade- quate notions of the relationship between mystical experi- ence and its interpretation. We examine this impasse by exposition and criticism of four possible model-s of this reLationship. We examine a further modeL in the final chapter and suggest some cruciaL modificati-ons to it. In the light ofl this, a number of theses are presented which deal- with the reLationship between mystical- experience and religious doctrine. We suggest that our final model, suitably modi- fied, indicat.es that a much more complex phenomenoJ-ogy of rel-igious experience is needed. This in turn l-eads to our other main conclusion. This is to the effect that the at- tempt to determine religious truth by appeal to religious experience is a conceptually impossib le one and that, therefore, the resolution of confllicting truth claims be- tween different religions needs to be conducted mainly on extra-experiential grounds. ACKNOt/'lLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge here the encouragement and advice given to me by my Supervisor, Mr. John Gi11. My thanks are afso due to Mr. Michael- Bradley for read- ing aIl contained herein in its penultimate form. Finally, I am grateful to Professor James Horne of the University of Waterloo and Dr. Harold Turner of the University of Aberdeen who read and commented upon ear- Iier versions of severaf of the chapters. INTRODUCTION THE PROBLEM OF UNITY & DIVERSITY IN RTLIGIONS Synopsis Section I The sub ject matter of t.he study: the nature of the relationship between religious experience and rel-igious propositions. The study arises from two considerations: Firstly, from the interest generated in world reJ-igions through the meeting of East and West: The interplay be- tween EasLern and WesLern modes of thought; the impact of East on West as a result. of'secularisation of the West. I Section I I. Secondly, the 'chaotic mul-tiloque' of the Western world leads to a recognitj-on of the problem of conflict- ing truth claims between rel-igions. A possible resofu- tion to the problem is offered by Hinduism's philosophy of t,ol-erance and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnants t.hesis of the unity of all rel-igions: There is an underlying core of Truth standing over against the rel-igious traditions which only partially enshrine it. l 2 Section III. How is this thesis justified? Statement of Radhakrishnanrs appeal to religious experience. Section IV. Radhakrishnan evinces the two main considerations for ou.rstudy: FirstIy, the recognition of the variety of religious doctrines; secondly, the awareness of a common core to all religions, namel-y, religious experi- ence. 0ur study proceeds from the premiss that the study of religious experience is a crucial proJ.egomenon to the analysis of the rel-ationship between world reli- gions. Two provisos regarding the methodology of this study. Definition of 'religious experience. ' Se cti on V ProbLems with Radhakrishnanrs thesis of the unity of alL religions. The problem of Approximation: Which tradition embodies the Truth to the Highest degree? Both N. Smart and P. Sherrard a¡gue that exponents of the thesis of the unity of all religions adopt an arbitrary normative stance. Se cti on Vi . The problem of the Priority of ReLigious Experi- ence: Do all religions place the same priority upon re- ligious experience? Radhakrishnan's distinction between religions of the object and religions of experience. 3. According to Radhakrishnan, the former are in danger of being outmoded by progress in the naturaL and historical- sciences. A refutation of this by reference to S. Kierkegaardrs discussion of religions A and B, and his notion of rcontemporaneity.t It is argued that both re- ligions of the object and religions of experience are ultimately based upon religious experience. A foreshadow- ing of the possibility that religions of experience and religions of the object are not based on the same experi- ence: The problem of the Unity of Religious Experience. INTRODUCTION THE PROBLEM OF UNITY & DIVERSITY IN RELIGIONS Section I Recently, the anthropologist, I. M. Lewis, has writ- ten, Belief, ritual-, and spiritual experience: these are the cornerstones of reliqioQ, and the greatest of them is the Ìast.1 This study proceeds upon the same basis. My primary concern is to examine and illuminaLe the nature of the reÌationship between major forms ofl religious experience and their expression in the propositional formulations of the major worfd religlons, their doctrines, their be- liefs etc. The necessity for and the desirability of under- taking such an enterprise arises from tulo main considera- tions. FirstJ-y, it arises from the presence within Western cufture ofl an ever-increasing growt.h of interest in the study of the great religious traditions of the worl-d. Indeed, the present time, showj-ng as it does the collapse of cultural- barriers and an incipient revol-t against Western culturaf tribal-ism together with the fore-shadowed deveJ-opment in Western man of a global consciousness, is perhaps the most propitious of all lr. M. Lewis, Ecstatic Reliqion (United Kingdom: Pengui n , I97I) , p.11. 4 5. previous ages for the study of world religions. This situation has arisen, perhaps paradoxicaJ.ly, from that process in Western societies which has been calLed t'secularisation." 0n the one hand, Western man, in becoming more "secularisedt', in becoming very much the child of the scientific and technological revolu- tions ofl the past severaL centuries has freed himsel-f from the dominance which religious belief and its insti- tutions in a predominantly Christian form have had over him. Yet, on the other hand, because secufarisa- tion has liberated Western man from viewing his worl-d through Christian-coloured spectacl-es, this very fact has made possible an approach to and an understanding of those spirit.ual universes within which the peoples of the East have for millenia found t,heir meaning, and by means of which they have mapped out their life journeys. To be sure, this is not to assert that the secufar- ist. mode of thought might not be applied t.o other rel-i- gions, nor to deny that the phenomenon of secularisation is making its presence felt in Eastern culture. As Paul Tillich points out, the main characteristic of the present en- counter of the worl-d religions is their encounter with Lhe quasi-religions of our t,ime .
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