The Formation of Near-Death Experiences

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Schlieter
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Account ◽  
Near Death Experiences

Raymond A. Moody had been introduced to experiences near death by George G. Ritchie. The latter had reported of an experience in which he had encountered Christ. This chapter discusses Moody’s first book of 1975, its motivation and motives, and compares Moody’s description of systematized “near-death experiences” with Johann C. Hampe’s systematic account of the same year, characteristic for the continental discourse on experiences of the dying, which was equally interested in the spiritual significance of the reports.

The Neurophysiology of Near-Death Experiences

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sage Schuitevoerder ◽  
Giovanni Sosa
Keyword(s):  
Near Death Experiences

Near-Death Experiences and the Religious Metacultures of Western Modernity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Schlieter
Keyword(s):  
Moral Significance ◽  
Western Modernity ◽  
Religious Meaning ◽  
Near Death Experiences ◽  
Being Religious

Building on earlier conceptions of “metacultures,” this chapter defines four metacultures that are important for Western near-death discourse: Christian, Gnostic–Esoteric, and the Spiritualist–Occult, being religious in outlook; the fourth, however, the Naturalist metaculture, is of a nonreligious nature. The three former metacultures assign religious meaning to the content of near-death experiences, affirming by and large the soul’s survival of death. The chapter argues that this meaning has (a) ontological, (b) epistemic, (c) intersubjective or communicative, and (d) moral significance. Naturalist metaculture is defined as offering pharmacological, neurological, or psychological explanations of near-death experiences, usually declaring their content to be hallucinatory.

The Religious Functions of Near-Death Experiences

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Schlieter
Keyword(s):  
Religious Experience ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Life After Death ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Near Death Experiences

This final chapter secures the result of the survey by discussing the religious functions of near-death experiences for affected individuals, but also the functions of the reports for the audience. It outlines (a) ontological, (b) epistemic, (c) intersubjective, and (d) moral aspects. It has been argued that experiencers feel closer to God, are less attracted to religion, and are significantly more inclined to believe in life after death. A function of the narratives consists in the claim that, in atheistic and secular times, individual religious experience is still possible. Several reports argue with a copresence of life and death. Discussing cognitivist approaches, the chapter finally concludes that, given the Latin etymology of “experience,” harboring, among others, the meaning of “being exposed to danger” or “passing a test,” near-death experiences can be seen as a match for conceptions of religious experience as a transformative, gained by surviving a life-threatening danger.

North America

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Shushan
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
North America ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Native American Religions ◽  
Widespread Acceptance ◽  
Revitalization Movements ◽  
Per Se ◽  
High Level ◽  
Near Death Experiences ◽  
Afterlife Beliefs

Dozens of Native American near-death experiences (NDEs) from the late sixteenth to early twentieth centuries are presented, ranging from across the continent. Many were accompanied by indigenous claims that they were the source for local afterlife beliefs. There were also many afterlife-related myths, and shamanic practices with NDE-like afterlife themes. In addition, numerous religious/cultural revitalization movements were claimed to have been grounded in the NDEs of their founders, and were conceptually related to the phenomenon. Near-death experiences could thus be an empowering force on a socio-cultural-political level in response to the threat of European dominance. There was a widespread acceptance and valorization of NDEs and related phenomena, and a high level of interest in the afterlife per se. Native American religions often showed a clear reciprocal relationship between shamanism, afterlife beliefs, and NDEs.

Love Divine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Wessling
Keyword(s):  
Human Beings ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
Emotional Life ◽  
Systematic Account ◽  
God's Love ◽  
The Creation ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Wrath Of God

This book provides a systematic account of the deep and rich love that God has for humans. Within this vast theological territory, the objective is to contend for a unified paradigm regarding fundamental issues pertaining to the God of love who deigns to share His life of love with any human willing to receive it. Realizing this objective includes clarifying and defending theological accounts of the following: • how the doctrine of divine love should be constructed; • what God’s love is; • what role love plays in motivating God’s creation and subsequent governance of humans; • how God’s love for humans factors into His emotional life; • which humans it is that God loves in a saving manner; • what the punitive wrath of God is and how it relates to God’s redemptive love for humans; • and how God might share His intra-trinitarian love with human beings. As the book unfolds, a network of nodal issues are examined related to God’s love as it begins in Him and then overflows into the creation, redemption, and glorification of humanity. The result is an exitus-reditus structure driven by God’s unyielding love.

Near-Death Experiences of Children

1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 139-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melvin L. Morse
Keyword(s):  
Near Death Experiences

scholarly journals Between the Times – and Sometimes Beyond: An Essay in Dialectical Theology and its Critique of Religion and “Religion”

Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 475-495
Author(s):  
Hartmut von Sass
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Account ◽  
Dialectical Theology ◽  
The Times ◽  
Critique Of Religion

AbstractThis paper gives a systematic account of Dialectical Theology (DT) and its surprisingly ramified usage of the concept of religion on the backdrop of recent debates about the “return of religion.” First, the positional context between Schleiermacher and Barth is sketched. Second, the highly divergent positions of Bultmann, Barth, Brunner as well as Gogarten and Tillich are presented – always in regard to their sometimes programmatic, sometimes rather hidden references to “religion” between its facticity and normativity. Third and by way of conclusion, it is suggested to restrict “religion” as a concept to non-theological disciplines, i.e., to treat “religion” as a strictly empirical and sociological term, whereas theology is concerned with faith that belongs to a very different game than religion, as DT helps to clarify.

Transformations in Self-Understanding after Near-Death Experiences

1986 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Raft ◽  
Jeffry J. Andresen
Keyword(s):  
Near Death Experiences
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