How The Epistemological Insights Affecting Christian Mystical Experiences

The Title

The title of the proposed thesis reads, “TOWARDS AN AFFECTIVE PRECEPTION OF GOD: A HERMENEUTICAL APPROPRIATION OF WILLIAM ALSTON’S EPISTEMOLOGY OF RELIGION.” As the title indicates, the focus of research is on the application of the epistemological insights of William Alston so as to enable us to understand affective aspects of human religious experience, especially of Christian Mystical Experiences.

1.1. Introduction

Skeptics (Freud, Carls Sagan) of religious experience deny the possibility of an epistemology of religion which has got perceptive experience of God as its foundation. They also further deny the possibility of emotional cognition of the supreme reality by reducing emotions to mere physical reactions and feelings. The general tendency is to see emotions as just by-products of perception rather than constitutive of effective-perceptual process. In this context, this thesis examines the epistemic status of religious experiences and the role that emotions play in religious experiences.

1.2. Approach

The approach to the basic question of our thesis will be interdisciplinary and hermeneutical. Insights from philosophy and phenomenological studies of religion, philosophy of emotion,

The proposed project attempts to examine the role of emotion in the phenomenology of religious experience based on the religious epistemology proposed by William P. Alston. Since cognitive theories of emotion and neuroscientific evidences show an essential relation among perception, conception, affection and action, this project attempts to study this relation. The attempt is to show that affective aspects are closely connected with every human experience in general and particularly with religious experience. The thesis ends with critical and evaluative synthesis of both perceptual and emotional models of religious experience and its consequences for being a religious person