3. God and the World

Mystics and Conversions

Religious Experience

Content

• the nature and influence of religious experience, including:

  • mystical experience

  • conversion experience

• different ways in which individual religious experiences can be understood

Key Knowledge

• examples of mystical and conversion experiences and views about these, including:

  • views and main conclusions of William James

• as union with a greater power

• psychological effect such as illusion

• the product of a physiological effect

Evil, Suffering, and Theodicies

The Problem of Evil

Content

• the problem of evil and suffering:

  • different presentations

  • theodicies that propose some justification or reason for divine action or inaction in the face of evil

Key Knowledge

• including its logical (the inconsistency between divine attributes and the presence of evil) and evidential (the evidence of so much terrible evil in the world) aspects

• Augustine’s use of original perfection and the Fall

• Hick’s reworking of the Irenaean theodicy which gives some purpose to natural evil in enabling human beings to reach divine likeness