Metaphor, Religious Language, and Religious Experience

Metaphor, Religious Language and Religious Experience

Is it possible to talk about God without either misrepresentation or failing to assert anything of significance? The article begins by reviewing how, in attempting to answer this question, traditional theories of religious language have failed to sidestep both potential pitfalls adequately. After arguing that recently developed theories of metaphor seem better able to shed light on the nature o...

Psychedelics and Religious Experience

The Inside and Outside: Religious Experience and Religious Thought

My purpose in this essay is to explore religious experience and religious thought and the relation between the two, for how these two are conceived has an important bearing on how we understand the meaningfulness of religion and religious traditions. My starting point is Peter Berger's recent work. The Heretical Imperative (Anchor/Doubleday, 1980), in which he summarizes the various strategies ...

The Significance of Religious Experience

The Neuroscience of Religious Experience

Recent technical advances in the life and medical sciences have revolutionized our understanding of the brain, while the emerging disciplines of social, cognitive, and affective neuroscience continue to reveal the connections of the higher cognitive functions and emotional states associated with religious experience to underlying brain states. At the same time, a host of developing theories in ...