One of the most famous sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini sits in the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria del Vittorio in Rome. It is entitled The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, seen here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_teresa_di_bernini_03.JPG
What is this sculpture trying to portray? How does it connect to belief in God?
Saint Theresa became famous as one of the leading mystical figures in the history of the Catholic Church, alongside Saint John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart (who was controversially tried but died before verdict by the local Inquisition), and most recently Pope John Paul II, Thomas Keating and Thomas Merton (both of the centering/contemplative prayer movement). Theresa thought that through her experiences she could offer criteria and a deeper understanding of the nature of God, prayer and our relationship through an description albeit partial and metaphorical of her way to God. Theresa offered a model of (mystical) prayer that proceeded along 4 levels. The first "mental prayer" involved contemplation or concentration and involved a withdrawal or removal of the soul from the everyday world. The second "prayer of quiet" involves a complete renunciation of the human desiring and willing sphere to God. "The devotion of union" is a state of prayer that involves supernatural grace, and goes beyond human comprehension to reach a level of "ecstatic union" with the Divine. The final and highest stage, "the devotion of ecstasy or rapture" is a purely passive state, where we reside in the Divine Presence and all connection with the sensory or body is gone. These 4 levels, according to Theresa, help us reach closer to God and know his nature and will. Similarly, all of these figures are held up as exemplars of those who communed with God in a deeply personal sense. So through mystical experience, we might get a better idea of who or what God is.
They also lend suggestive evidence to the idea that the best proof of anything is through direct (whether sensory or other forms) experience. Just as I can prove the existence of my hand by seeing it, feeling it, and well using it, so too can we experience God by an experience of the Divine.
These famous religious mystics are not alone in the claim that they experience God. Many everyday believers claim to have 'experienced' God. But what does it mean to experience God? Is the everyday believer's relationship with God an 'experience' of God? Is an 'experience' of God limited to God speaking through the burning bush to Moses, or walking with Abraham, or speaking to the prophets? What about the experience of religious mystics?
The 'experience' of God also raises all sorts of questions about religious pluralism (which itself is not an easy thing to define...see http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_plur1.htm ). Do mystics from different religious traditions experience the same Divine Presence? What do we say about differing accounts of God in this experience? While "experience of God" is the most direct and straightforward 'proof' for God's existence, it is far from easy.
William James attempts to answer some (or many) of these questions. As a psychologist who was sympathetic to religion and his position of "radical empiricism", James tries to make philosophical and psychological sense of mystical and religious experience. James himself had very interesting ideas on the details and ways to achieve mystical experience, and even allowed and encouraged the use of certain drugs to achieve mystical states (more recently, see the Marsh Chapel Experiments and its impact on the scholar of religion Houston Smith).
What else does James have to add in "the Reality of the Unseen"?
What examples does he offer and how is James's view similar but distinct from Theresa's? Do you think either holds more 'authority' or weight in their analysis? Why?
What James means by the Unseen and his focus in this piece is not always clear, and will be something (else) to consider in our discussion.
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