Religious Experience: An Existential Inquiry
The Era of Ideology
Our era is an era of ideology. Instead of learning from reality with all its data and building upon it, we try to manipulate reality by adjusting it to the consistency of a schema. The triumph of ideology proclaims the downfall of civilization, as St. Augustine suggests.
Realism in Investigation
First, an investigation of any event or thing requires realism. St. Augustine said, “I investigated to find something, not to think.” The healthy person wants to know how the facts are. Just knowing how they are, and only then can one also think.
The Question of Religious Meaning
What sense does it make? This question is timeless and affects all human activity. In this case, one most consciously or unconsciously relies on what others say. Realism requires that we observe an object in such a way as to show the method is not imagined, conceived, organized, or created by the subject, but imposed by the object. This applies to religious experience.
Understanding Religious Experience
What kind of phenomenon is religious experience? It is a phenomenon that belongs to humans. How does it come about? It is about myself, about what I think: an existential inquiry. Once this is resolved, it will be useful to compare my results with those who have expressed other thinkers and philosophers.
Judging the Results of Existential Inquiry
Having performed this existential exploration, it is necessary to know how to judge the results of such an inquiry about ourselves. Without an assessment capacity, a person cannot have any experience (understand things, discover their meaning). What is the criterion that would allow us to judge what we see happening in ourselves?
There are two possibilities:
- The criterion by which to judge what we see in ourselves is borrowed from something outside of us (alienation).
- Such a criterion is within ourselves.
It can arise from our nature. Only this alternative may be considered reasonable and not alienating.
The Elementary Experience
All the experiences of my humanity and my person relate to the elementary experience. All people have the right and duty to learn the ability and habit to compare each proposal they receive with their basic experience. The elementary experience is a set of requirements and evidence that is confronted with all that exists. They started the engine of human dynamics.
Different Opinions and the Truth
Many times, on the same subject, there are different opinions. What is true? It will be necessary to analyze and compare the criteria of the elementary experience. In human society, many are facing their destiny and things. They think they can determine the ultimate meaning. This is a celebration of anarchy.
Two Types of People
There are two types of people who save the human height: the anarchist and the truly religious. The nature of a person’s relationship to the infinite is this: the anarchist is the claim itself to infinity, and the religious person is infinite as acceptance of the meaning of oneself. Anarchy is the most fascinating and deceptive temptation.
Confronting the Elementary Experience
If we want to become adults without being deceived by others, and we have to get used to not being instrumentalized, we must confront all with the elementary experience. This is an unpopular idea because everything is being addressed through the common mentality that those in power sustain and propagate in society.
The Beginning of Liberation
The use of elementary experience, or our heart, is unpopular, especially to ourselves. Let’s start judging: it is the beginning of liberation. Here, one cannot avoid going against the current. It could be called ascetic work (by the person in search of their maturity).