Acquaintance and the sublime: an alternative account of theistic sublime experience
In this paper I argue that when one has an epiphany of the form 'God is F' (e.g., 'God is wise') upon having a sublime experience one can be accurately described as being acquainted with the fact that God is F as opposed to inferring that God is F from the experience at hand. To...
| Published in: | International journal for philosophy of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Springer Science + Business Media B. V
[2017]
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| In: |
International journal for philosophy of religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Theism
/ The Sublime
/ Epiphany
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| Further subjects: | B
Acquaintance
B Religious Experience B Theism B Misotheism B Sublime B Theistic perception B Religion B Non-inferential perceptual belief B Philosophy B University of Cambridge |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this paper I argue that when one has an epiphany of the form 'God is F' (e.g., 'God is wise') upon having a sublime experience one can be accurately described as being acquainted with the fact that God is F as opposed to inferring that God is F from the experience at hand. To argue for this, I will, first, outline what a sublime experience is, in general, before outlining what a theistic sublime experience is in particular. Second, I will outline two ways of understanding theistic sublime experiences. First, I will outline a model that I will call the 'inference model' which, put simply, says that when one has an epiphany of the form 'God is F', upon having a theistic sublime experience, one is drawing this conclusion via a process of 'inference-to-the-best-explanation' (Chignell and Halteman in: Costelloe (ed) The sublime: From antiquity to the present, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012, p. 426). Second, I will outline an alternative model that I call the 'acquaintance model' which, put simply, says that no inferential process occurs when one has an epiphany of the form 'God is F' upon having a theistic sublime experience, but one is made directly aware of the fact that God is F. Third, and finally, I will respond to some objections to the acquaintance model. |
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| ISSN: | 1572-8684 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: International journal for philosophy of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1007/s11153-016-9598-6 |