Toward a Proper Phenomenology of "Religious Experience"

Citation

Tuckett J (2017) Toward a Proper Phenomenology of "Religious Experience". Journal for the Study of Religious Experience, 3 (1), pp. 23-43. http://rerc-journal.tsd.ac.uk/index.php/religiousexp/article/view/14/43

Abstract
The purpose of this article is to highlight the difference between two "phenomenological" accounts of what it means to discuss "religious experience" in terms of how they understand "altered states of consciousness". It aims to move away from "the phenomenology of religion" of Ninian Smart which would categorise religious experience as something "special", promoting an ecumenical theological agenda, toward a "deflated" account of philosophical phenomenology. While not popular among academics, the basic structure of Smart's position can still be identified in more recent scholarship. By mundanising what it means to talk of "altered states" in the phenomenologically reduced sense—i.e. as a scholarly, analytic concept—this article proposes grounds upon which we should re-evaluate what it means to describe particular experiences as "religious".

Keywords
Ninian Smart; Religious Experience; Altered States of Consciousness; Alfred Schutz; Phenomenology

Journal
Journal for the Study of Religious Experience: Volume 3, Issue 1