Religious Experience, Justification, and History

Recently, many philosophers of religion have sought to defend the rationality of religious belief by shifting the burden of proof onto the critic of religious belief. Some have appealed to extraordinary religious experience in making their case. Religious Experience, Justification, and History restores neglected explanatory and historical considerations to the debate. Through a study of William James, it contests the accounts of religious experience offered in recent works. Through reflection on the history of philosophy, it also unravels the philosophical use of the term justification. Matthew Bagger argues that the commitment to supernatural explanations implicit in the religious experiences employed to justify religious belief contradicts the modern ideal of human flourishing. For contrast, and to demonstrate the indispensability of history, he includes a study of Teresa of Avila\'s mystical theology. The controversial supernatural explanations implicit in extraordinary religious experience place the burden of proof on the believer.

• Fully attends to the importance of history in the study of religion and philosophy • Grounded in a study of one particular mystic (Teresa of Avila), unlike most philosophical discussions of religious experience • Offers a reading of William James’s views relevant to religious experience that draws on his Principles of Psychology, and not just his Varieties

Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; 1. Introduction: spectral evidences; 2. The explanation in experience and the explanation of experience; 3. Justification by reasons alone; 4. Perennialism revisited; 5. The miracle of minimal foundationalism; 6. Loves noble historie: Teresa of Avila’s mystical theology; 7. Modernity and its discontents; Notes; Works cited; Index.

‘Bagger’s argument is formidable and expertly argued.’

– George Pattison, Expository Times