I planned to talk about religious experience in a blog post already. It is something of profound personal significance and interest to me, something that came up in a number of outlets that I follow or in other things that people drew to my attention, and was also brought up by a Facebook friend in a question.<\/p>\n
Then the movie Fatima was released, and I knew it was time to finish off this post. The movie is worthwhile watching for anyone, but I suspect that those who watch it either as atheists or Roman Catholics will be largely polarized in the assumptions they bring and their reactions to the movie. I\u2019m more interested in how Protestants and others with an openness in principle to religion and even spiritual experience, but without the reverence for Mary and beliefs about penance and the rosary that are part of that tradition. In some ways I think that for those of us who fall into that category, the movie will be the most challenging and thought-provoking. A skeptical professor and author is played by Harvey Keitel, and he interviews the surviving visionary Lucia who is now a nun. Every possible issue related to visions and religious experience can thus be brought to the fore at some point. Why do visionaries seem Mary (or any other figure) in the manner that stereotypical images would lead one to assume they look like? Could these be childhood delusions or psychological mechanisms for coping with the trauma Portugal faced during an era of war, bereavement, and government hostility towards religion? How does a skeptic account for the fact that so many eyewitnesses saw the so-called \u201cmiracle of the sun\u201d? And if one dismisses the reality of the Fatima visions and one is an adherent of some other religious tradition, why should any prophet or visionary in your tradition be treated any less skeptically? The movie is worth watching no matter what one\u2019s religious outlook, since the discussions it can spark are useful across a wide array of traditions and degrees of skepticism and belief.<\/p>\n
As I move to sharing some other things that have come to my attention, let me start with a call for submissions for\u00a0Open Theology<\/em> focused on the phenomenology of religious experience<\/a>. Next\u00a0let me turn next to an article about a new biography of a Buddhist<\/a> monk in India<\/a>:<\/p>\n The members of Priyadarshi\u2019s clan were familiar with spiritual seekers\u2014 this was India\u2014but these were modern, educated, and secular Brahmins. One stated flatly, \u201cFull-time religion is what people do when they have no education, no prospects, no other way to survive.\u201d Priyadarshi\u2019s clan boasted prestigious scholars and prominent political leaders and social activists. They were influencers of society, not dropouts from it. \u201cWhy be a monk,\u201d they challenged him, \u201cwhen you could be respected and make a difference in the world?\u201d<\/p>\n It is a fair question, one anybody might ask, even many Buddhist practitioners. Running Toward Mystery delivers one convincing answer, demonstrating the value of a renunciate life to the contemporary world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Part of the answer is religious experience.<\/p>\n See also:<\/p>\n