For Students’ Use Only HAU-Theology 101

B. Theology as a Religious Experience

1. Theology- is a reflection of religious experience.

2. Mabathalang Pag-aaral according to the Filipino Theologian from Leuvein

a. Ito ay pagninilay sa mga karanasan kay Bathala o karanasang “mahal-banal”
b. Mainam na sariwain natin ang mga panahon na kung saan nadama natin ang kadahang-loob ni Bathala sa
ating buhay.

3. An experience is defined as the encounter between man and reality.

a. However, Gabriel Marcel, a French theistic existentialist believes that “experience is more than the simple
meeting of self (inside) and sense of world (outside).” Marcel suggests that an experience implies reflection.
Thus, reflection is intimately related with experience. Experience and reflection do not just touch, they meet.
b. Experience thus implies not just juxtaposition of perceiver and perceived but a meaningful and creative
relationship between the two, a dialectic.
 We wonder when we reflect. We reflect when we wonder. When we wonder, we
ask questions.
 But, what sort of questions do we ask ourselves with regard to any experience?
 A good question to ask is, what experience do we consider as meaningful?
Usually meaningful experiences are experiences that bring us into the invisible but real world mediated
by meaning like: truth, beauty, love, etc.
 A meaningful experience also speaks of one’s ultimate concern, the number one
priority in life. This could be one’s family, studies, special someone, dreams, or aspirations.
 This ultimate value or concern has a character of unconditionally and
unreserved commitment wherein you are willing to sacrifice everything because you believe this will give
you ultimate satisfaction and meaning.
c. Roque Ferriols, a Jesuit theologian explains the meaning of “kahulugan” or meaning using the image of a
“funnel” or “embudo.” Kapag ikaw ay bumibili ng “buko juice,” gumagamit ng embudo ang tindera para di
matapon at tuluy tuloy ito sa baso o plastic. Doon lang hinuhulog ng tindera ang buko juice o sago’t gulaman.
Sa buhay, kapag iisa lang ang pinaghuhulugan mo ng panahon at lakas, doon mo rin makukuha ng kahulugan.
Ang taong makahulugan ang buhay ay iisa lang ang pinaghuhulugan niya ng panahon. Kung maraming
pinaghuhulan ang buhay ng tao (at di gumagamit ng embudo) tapun-tapon ang bagay na dapat sana iisa ang
pinaghuhulugan. Sabog at walang direksyon ang buhay.
d. For Paul Tillich, a theologian, the ultimate value is equal to “god”.
e. For Rudolph Visker, a Jesuit philosopher-theologian, the ultimate longing for satisfaction is the ultimate
longing for the Absolute. He equates this absolute with God, the one who satisfies ultimately man’s longing
for meaning.
*** Now, how can an experience be religious? What is the difference between depth experience and religious
experience? ***
f. According to Dermot Lane, religious experiences are those moments in life when we perceive the world of
meaning as grounded in that immanent and transcendent reality we call God.
 For any believer, faith forms an intrinsic part of the perceptual apparatus. This
means, faith is an important component when we perceive things (seen or unseen).
g. To perceive the world of meaning as grounded in God or even unseen realities requires faith: the ability to
see beyond the merely human or the merely actual or obvious.
 It is faith that makes us see, for example, that this particular human manifestation of truth, love,
goodness, or forgiveness is in fact a reality of God reaching out to us religiously or mundanely (ordinary
moments in life). An experience then can be religious w/o necessarily alluding to religious or liturgical
activities done in and by the Church. Secular activities can be considered religious experiences.
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For Students’ Use Only HAU-Theology 101
 Faith as an intrinsic part of the perceptual apparatus enables us to see beyond the ordinary moments in
our life. It makes us transcend. Transcendence then is an important factor in religious experiences.
 W/o faith, we can not come in contact with God or the “unseen” in the depth of our experience. At the
same time faith is a grace and a gift from God.
 Our language, our culture, our personal history, prejudices and preferences, and most importantly our
faith, shape the way we perceive things and integrate them to our consciousness. We forge, mould, and
configure the object of perception accdg to our mental “baggage” as it is being integrated to our
consciousness.
o Thus, any experience is both objective and subjective; it is not solely determined and shaped by the
person who experiences, nor it is wholly determined by the object of perception (the one being
perceived).
o Therefore, the experience of God occurs within and through human experience.
h. At the very core of humanity is the inclination for order and to the One responsible for order. AYAW NATIN SA
MAGULO. Religious experience is surrender to this bigger reality, in this case, God. Religious experience is a
deeper experience of reality.
i. Religious experience is ecstatic which leads you out of yourself. It is fulfilled time not filling in time. Filling in
time is an experience of boredom. A person starts becoming conscious of time. (parang ang tagal). In fulfilled
time, like being with a love one or in a game like basketball, you lose yourself, you tend to be mindless of
time; you become ecstatic (euphoric or delighted) - leading you out of yourself.
j. Accdg to David Tracy, limit situations are disclosive of religious experience in our way of self-transcendence.
There are two limit situations:
 Positive limit situations: experiences of joy, jubilations, life, or happiness. These are experiences of
“bitin.”
 Negative limit situations: experiences of fear, loneliness as in “sagad,” naubusan ka!
 Limit situations are self-transcending experiences.
k. Karl Rahner in his Theological Investigation (vol.3) has some questions that would reflect on our religious
experiences. One of the questions is, “Have we not had the experience of pardoning with all sincerity? The
act of forgiveness is a religious experience.

4. Pananampalataya: Bilang Paniniwala, Pagtitiwala, at Pagkakatiwala

a. Tiwala ang salitang ugat ng paniniwala, pagtitiwala, at pagkakatiwala.
 Ang tiwala ay maaring mag-ugat sa:nagsasabi (nagsasalita); o sa sinasabi (salita)
 Kapag ang nagsasabi (person) ay may credibilidad (marunong; mabuti; matapat;
maganda ang kalooban; busilak ang puso) siya ay mapagkatitiwalaan. Tayo ay nagtitiwala sa kanya.
 Kapag ang salita ay “may dating”; “walang daya”, ito ay may “talab.” Samaktuwid, tanggap ko ang salita.
Ako ay may tiwala sa kanyang salita. May epekto sa akin ang kanyang salita.
 Ang salitang galing sa malinis na kalooban ay salitang may dating; maari kong isabuhay. Samaktuwid,
salitang maari kong panindigan.
 Tiwala ang binibigay natin sa taong busilak ang kalooban. Tiwala ang ating binibigay sa bagay na walang
daya. Tiwala ang ating binibigay sa salitang may dating.
 Dahil sa tiwalang binibigay ko, sa tao man o sa salita, ako ay naninindigan: HINDI KO ITO PAPABAYAANG
MAWALA, IPAGLALABAN KO ITO.
b. Kapag meron akong pananampalataya, ako ay naniniwala.
 Kapag ako ay naniniwala, ako ay nagtitiwala.
 Kapag ako ay nagtitiwala, ako ay naninindigan, itataya ko ang aking sarili.I make a solemn conviction.
 Faith is pagtataya. Tiwala ang dahilan kung bakit handa kong itaya ang aking sarili. Naniniwala akong
magdudulot ito ng kahulugan sa aking buhay.
 Faith is pananalig. Galing ito sa salitang “salig” na kasing-kahulugan ng sandig o sandal ( to lean on; to
depend).
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oPagsalig is relying or depending on someone as a foundation or support. Samaktuwid, pagsalig ay
pagtitiwala. Sinaligan ay pinagtiwalaan.
 Pag-asa (hope) ang bunga ng pananalig (faith). Palagay ang loob ng taong may tiwala. Pagasa ang dama
ng taong nagtitiwala.
 Dahil naguugat sa malinis (maganda) na kalooban ang tiwala, maganda rin ang bukas na naghihintay sa
taong may pananalig.
 Ika nga ni Santino, “may bukas pa”
 Ika nga ni Sharon, “bukas sisikat din ang araw”
c. Magandang umaga ang bati nating mga Pinoy.
 Magandang umaga ang kaakibat ng taong nagtitiwala’t may pananalig.
 Makahulugan ang buhay ng taong nakakikita pa ng bukas. May kahulugan kapag
may pag-asa; may bukas pa sa may makahulugang pag-iral. Sumisikat ang araw.
 Sa taong walang pananalig o walang sinasaligan, ang bawat araw ay
kasalukuyan. Ang bawat araw ay pare-pareho. Gaya rin ng kahapon, walang pinag-iba. Samaktuwid,
walang kahulugan.
 Maitim ang budhi ng taong madaya. Tiwala ang wala sa taong madaya. Dating at
talab, samaktuwid ang wala sa taong walang paninindigan. MASAMA ang tawag natin sa taong walang
sinasaligan.
 ka ng mga matatanda, MAY ARAW KA RIN.
d. Ang Diyos ay ang Dakilang Ganap. Ganap ang kahulugang handog niya. Ganap din and kapanatagang dulot
nya. Ganap samaktuwid and tiwalang ibibigay niya. Sa kanya ako magtitiwala. Sa kanya ako mananalig. Sa
kanya ko itataya ang aking sarili. Ipagkakatiwala ko sa kanya ang aking sarili.
 Dahil hangad kong gumanda ang kalooban ko, kay Bathala ako mananalig. Kay Bathala ako sasalig.
Pinagaganda niya ang kalooban ko.
 Dahil pinapadama ng Diyos ang kanyang kagandahang loob, sisikapin kong maisaloob ang kalooban niya.
Susundin ko ang kanyang kalooban (God’s Will).
 MAGPAPAKATAO AKO.
CONCLUSION: “to have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.” - Hebrew
11:1

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND THE SACRED

Dr. James S. Dalton , Siena College.

The first question which arises is how do we distinguish "religious" folks from "non-religious" folks? I would do so in
the following fashion:

 Non-religious folks claim "what you see is what you get" or, in other words, that reality is encompassed by the
world of human experience (the physical universe, time and history from "the big bang" until the end of the
universe, our lives from birth to death, etc.). Life finds its meaning within life. See, for instance, the claims of The
Secular Humanist Declaration.

 Religious folks claim that the above reality is not all there is but that there is another order of reality (let us call it
"the Sacred"). This Sacred reality is of an order totally different from the ordinary reality of experience and is,
therefore, ultimately inexpressible and unknowable.

 Religious folks claim further that, despite its inexpressibility, this reality is accessible to human experience.
Human communities can, somehow, "link up" with Sacred reality. The "how" of this link is the business of

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For Students’ Use Only HAU-Theology 101
religious traditions. It can vary from the self-revelation of God (in the Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions),
the experience of a Sacred in and through the natural world, or to the results of meditative experience in
Buddhism. The point is that Sacred reality is both "totally other" than ordinary reality and is accessible to human
experience.

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND ITS EXPRESSIONS

Joachim Wach defines religious experience as "the total response of the total being to Ultimate Reality." Another way
of expressing this is to say that religious experience involves all dimensions of human experience (the social, political,
economic, psychological, etc.) in response to the encounter with the Sacred. This experience is not self contained but is
always expressed. Religious folks don't only experience the Sacred, they also do something as a result of this experience.
I would summarize Wach's discussion (with my own emendations) of the expressions of religious experience as follows:

1. Religious experience is always expressed in THOUGHT. Human beings think about what they experience when
they experience the Sacred. This thought has taken two forms in the history of religions.

 systematic thought: theology, religious philosophy, etc. Scholars or thinkers within a tradition reflect
systematically on the meaning of the community's experience of the Sacred. The results are manifest, for
instance, in Christian theology, the Jewish Talmud, Buddhist abhidharma, Hindu speculation and so forth.

 mythology (I would prefer to define this as "the truth about reality told in the form of Story"): Present in
all religious traditions and dominant in non-literate traditions (many native traditions), this "telling of
stories" is the way in which the community reflects on the meaning of Sacred reality and its significance
for life, the world and the community. Examples can range from the Genesis account of the creation of
the world and the biography of the Buddha to Native creation myths (the "dream time" of the Australian
Aborigines, emergence myths of Native Americans, etc.).

2. Religious experience is always expressed in ACTION. Religious folks do something as a result of their encounter
with the Sacred. This is manifest in two major ways in religious traditions.

 Ethics: folks behave differently as a result of their religious experience (the Ten Commandments, the
Christian law of charity, the Buddhist "Five Precepts," Native customs and traditions, the Confucian code,
etc.).

 Ritual (what I would prefer to call "religious symbolic action"): religious communities "act out" and
"dramatize" their experience of the Sacred in highly complex and symbolically dense ritual activities.
Some examples could include the Roman Catholic Mass, the Jewish Seder, Islamic Pilgrimage to Mecca,
Buddhist recitations of Sutras and mantras, Native initiation rituals, universal rituals surrounding birth,
marriage, puberty, and death. These actions are extremely dense since they involve the community's
response to the Sacred.

3. Religious experience is always expressed in COMMUNITY. When religious folks experience the Sacred they always
gather into communities. The nature and form of these communities is determined by the nature and form of
the experience of the Sacred. This has two major implications for the nature of community in human experience.

 Religious experience of the Sacred gives rise to various forms of religious communities. Examples include
Christian churches or Church, the Buddhist sangha (the universal Buddhist community), the Jewish

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For Students’ Use Only HAU-Theology 101
family, the Chinese extended family, the Hindu caste system, the "tribal" identity of Native Peoples, and
so forth.

 Religious experience always has a social dimension or, in other words, implications for the organization
of the larger society. I often put this to my students in a theistic context by saying "if God is God, how
should the world be?" Religious traditions have always seen the larger social community in light of their
experience of the Sacred. Some examples from history include Christendom (the Middle Ages), Islamic
societies today, India and the caste system, Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand, tensions
between Native societies and nations (tribal sovereignty in the US, First Nations in Canada, etc.), the
state of Israel and so forth. Examples abound of the interactions of religious traditions and the societies
which encompass them.

4. Religious experience is always expressed through the religious imagination, that is, imaginatively. Human beings
gather together the various elements of their experience and imaginatively recombine them in order to express
their experience of Sacred Reality. Often this takes the forms of what are called in Western culture "the Arts."
Thus painting, sculpture, music and, especially performance (in ritual, for example) can be profound expressions
of a tradition's experience of the Sacred. The religious imagination can also play a decisive role in the shaping of
society and culture

THE CONTEXT FOR RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

The pathway between religious experience and the human historical and cultural situation goes both ways. Not only
does religious experience have important shaping influences on human culture and history (for examples see the history
of any civilization or society), but human economic, political, social, psychological, and cultural experience shapes
religious experience. Religious experience always happens in a fully human context. What Christians think about Jesus
(or, for that matter, Buddhists about the Buddha or the Dharma) is partially dependent on who they are, where they are,
and when they are. To fully understand any religious experience demands an analysis of all of its contexts. This also
accounts for the divergencies within any religious tradition and among the practitioners of these traditions.

C. AHA EXPERIENCE

 Question: What common characteristics do these religious experiences have?

 4 Characteristics of Religious/Mystical Experience according to William James ( a psychologist and a philosopher)
in his book entitled “The Varieties of Religious Experience”.
o Transient -- the experience is temporary; the individual soon returns to a "normal" frame of mind.
o Ineffable -- the experience cannot be adequately put into words.
o Noetic -- the individual feels that he or she has learned something valuable from the experience.
o Passive -- the experience happens to the individual, largely without conscious control. Although there are
activities, such as meditation, that can make religious experience more likely, it is not something that can be
turned on and off at will.
I. Topic: Two Poles of Theology

II. Activity
 Introduction to the activity:

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For Students’ Use Only HAU-Theology 101
o We each have personal recollections of past events, personal memories, and vivid, imaginative accounts of
the events of our lives. These memories create a springboard for the stories that will provide us a precious
link to our past.
o We call these traditions. TRADITION is (1) a way of thinking , behaving or doing something that has been
used by people in a particular group, family, society, etc., for a long time; (b) The stories, beliefs, etc., that
have been part of the culture of a group of people for a long time.
o Different world cultural traditions, national traditions, family traditions, etc.
 Objectives of the activity
o To research one’s family culture and heritage through interviews of the elders.
o To be exposed to values, perspectives and experiences of different generations in their family.
o To develop sense of self, family and community through the crafting of the TIMELINE FAMILY TRADITIONS.
 5 reasons to observe Family Traditions
o Family Traditions create good feelings and special moments to remember.
o Family traditions give every member of the family a stronger sense of belonging.
o Family traditions help us discover and develop our identity.
o Family traditions keep us rooted with our family values.
o Family traditions provide a sense of security.
 Points for reflection
o Are your current family traditions still faithful to your original family traditions?
o If there were modifications, are these modifications faithful to the essence of the original family traditions?
o How can you say yes or no? Are you knowledgeable of your past family traditions?
o Overall, how has the activity helped you? Any insights?

III. Content
 Balangkas ng Talaban at Talastasan sa pagitan ng Tradisyong Hudyo-Kristiyano at Kasalukuyang Karanasan

o
TRADISYONG KASALUKUYANG
HUDYO-KRISTIYANO KARANASAN NG
(Judeo-Christian BAYANG
Tradition) NANANAMPALATAYA
(Contemporary
Human Experience)

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