Encountering Mystery
Religious Experience in a Secular Age
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- $30.99
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- $30.99
Publisher Description
Despite widespread skepticism on the matter, a significant number of people today have stories of religious experience—moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions. How should rationally minded people respond?
What would your reaction be if someone told you that, one night while sitting alone, she saw through the window a brilliant light descend from the sky until it was so large that it filled the room—and that it radiated a feeling of "pure love"? And what would you say if a friend confided that one night he woke up and could not move, felt he was being suffocated, and sensed an evil spirit in the room?
By default in the secular age we are skeptical about anything mysterious or supernatural. More likely than not, most people would respond to the stories above with embarrassment and concern about the person's grasp of reality, or they would attempt to explain them away through rational or scientific means. But the truth is that religious experiences like these are not as uncommon as they seem—although talking about such experiences often is. This is the case even in a faith tradition such as Christianity, despite the Bible's numerous accounts of miraculous and mysterious happenings.
In Encountering Mystery, noted biblical scholar Dale Allison makes the argument that stories of religious experience are meaningful and not to be marginalized—and that we have a moral prerogative to lovingly engage with such stories regardless of whether we have had similar experiences. Through a close look at phenomena such as moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions, Allison shows how ordinary practices of faith need not be at odds with individual religious experiences. Above all, he enjoins us to be honest about the persistence of religious experience in a secular age and to make space for those who encounter mystery in their lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Numinous experiences may not be common, but they are not, even in our so-called secular world, uncommon," contends Princeton theological seminary professor Allison (The Resurrection of Jesus) in this evenhanded analysis. He compiles accounts of supernatural episodes, including his experience of lights descending from the sky to surround him with "a calm ecstasy," and suggests that there are phenomena science can't explain that deserve to be studied. The stories—some shared directly with the author, others pulled from archives or articles—tell of people who have seen strange shadows, been inexplicably overwhelmed by bliss, or had near-death experiences. Positing that many angel encounters follow a script in which someone has their distress relieved by an apparently otherworldly stranger, the author asks, "Why, if there are no divine emissaries to be seen, natural selection has programmed so many of us to see them?" Allison's willingness to doubt some supernatural accounts ("It is natural to have reservations") and lay out the scientific explanations for others makes the cases he can't explain more persuasive, as does his commitment to promoting inquiry over definite answers. A grounded entry in the supernatural encounters genre, this well-researched chronicle has the power to give skeptics second thoughts.
