Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age (Dale C.Allison Jr.) -- A Review
ENCOUNTERING MYSTERY: Religious Experience in a Secular Age. By Dale C. Allison Jr. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2022. X + 253 pages.
We live
in a post-Enlightenment world. The Enlightenment, following David Hume, insisted
that we should develop a healthy skepticism of out-of-the-ordinary claims to
religious experiences. We should, Hume and others insisted, be wary of claims
of experiences that cannot be verified, whether using scientific criteria or
simply common human experience. Thus, over time, even religious people,
especially religious scholars, have wanted to stick with the explainable. Or to
use Rudolph Bultmann’s language, we should demythologize our faith in light of
modern experience. Nevertheless, a lot of people report having had spiritual experiences
that are not easily explained. This is especially true of near-death
experiences. What should we make of these and other claims of extraordinary
experiences?
For the most part, religious
scholars have stayed away from the kind of conversations that involve the
unexplainable. For many of these scholars, delving into them could give the
wrong impression to their colleagues. Nevertheless, there are those scholars
who are willing to take the risk to reputation and mystery. One scholar who has
chosen to cross the Rubicon and engage in such a thing is Dale C. Allison. Allison is a well-regarded New Testament
professor who currently teaches New Testament at Princeton Seminary. While you
might not expect Princeton professors to engage in such conversations that might
be deemed undignified, that’s exactly what Allison has done.
As noted, Allison currently teaches
at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he is the Richard J. Dearborn
Professor of New Testament Studies. He has written numerous books and
commentaries, including an important study of eschatology that I found very
helpful—Night Comes:Death, Imagination, and the Last Things. The fact
that Allison has already written about matters of death and last things,
suggests that he is well prepared for engaging religious experience. What he
seeks to do here is report on what others have shared regarding their
experiences, while offering his take on these reports. While he approaches the
subject with a high degree of openness, he does so with a healthy dose of
skepticism. These are important qualities to bring to the table when dealing
with what many deem to be extraordinary. While this book is written by a
well-regarded scholar, it is not intended to be read as an academic treatise.
Instead, he seeks to offer it as a pastoral work, seeking to help those who
have had experiences sort them out.
Allison starts this conversation
about religious experience by sharing several personal experiences that are out
of the ordinary. In the opening chapter titled "Stars Descending," he
shares four convictions that guide the ensuing conversation. 1) He doesn’t
believe that his own experiences are a mere curiosity. 2) The "theological
idea of grace is not uninformed theory. Perhaps indeed grace is built into the
structure of things." 3) Cod can speak through the natural world. 4)
"Appearances are deceiving. Things are not what they seem to be most of
the time." (pp. 6-7). These are, he writes, truths gained from personal
experience.
The message from the beginning is
that we should at least keep an open mind to reports of religious/spiritual
experiences, some of which are a blessing and others that are not. While there have
been academic studies of such phenomena, religious scholars often steer clear
of these efforts. Interestingly, Allison reports that people are increasingly
open to sharing their religious experiences. That’s because there appears to be
less stigma about such experiences than was true in previous generations. While
there is still scientific skepticism and disinterest among religious scholars,
people are increasingly open to sharing their near-death experiences and
angelic encounters. Ongoing hesitancy is based on the fact that not everyone is
open to hearing these stories. That closes off avenues to share stories.
When we come to the book’s third
chapter, Allison moves from setting out the parameters of this study to
exploring more deeply reported experiences, some of which are blissful and
others terrorizing. The latter stories involve experiences of oppressive
spiritual forces. From this exploration of more generalized experiences that
often come randomly and from places unexpected, he moves to prayer, noting the
ways different people pray and what they experience in relation to those
prayers. The point he wants to make here is that experiences of prayer vary
widely. While prayer is a common experience among people of faith, there are
less common experiences. Thus, having discussed how people pray, he moves on to
"the Lore of Angels" in chapter 5. He reports that many reports of
angel sightings involve a person appearing out of nowhere, dressed in white,
experiences that have a biblical interpretive framework. While many of the
reports can be explained as an "overinterpretation of mundane
events," not all such experiences can be explained in that way. Again,
Allison is less interested in explaining these experiences than he is in reporting
them. Having reported the experiences, he lets us, the reader, ponder the
experiences of others which might help us explore our own experiences. In other
words, he wants the reader to know that their experiences might seem out of the
ordinary but might be shared with many others.
In Chapter 6 we move into
conversations about death. He reports the various phenomena experienced by
people as they approach death. These phenomena include seeing long-dead loved
ones, who visit them to offer comfort as they transition from life into death.
These "death bed visitations" or DBVs are rather common, and readers may
have heard reports or experienced the appearance of persons after their deaths.
From these DBVs, we turn to what Allison calls "Death from Within."
These are the Near-Death Experiences that are increasingly being reported.
Again, Allison reports what others have shared, as well as studies that
interpret such experiences. As with other reported experiences, he approaches
them with an open mind. He notes that when it comes to understanding these
experiences, "professional theologians and biblical scholars [are] of next
to no hope. Most of them display not even a modicum of curiosity as they
continue to write about death and eschatology with nary a word on NDEs. The
unstated implication is that such experiences are irrelevant for theology and
of no significance for deciding whether there might be something beyond death
or what it might look like" (pp. 138-139). I will admit I have looked at
reports of NDEs with a great deal of skepticism, assuming that they represent
some form of brain response to approaching death. While this response is common,
Allison helpfully opens us up to other possibilities without coming down on a
particular interpretation. This chapter is probably worth the cost of the book.
Those who have had these experiences do not experience them as being a dream.
They are very real. So, perhaps we should pay attention.
The first seven chapters largely
report the experiences of others. Although Allison shares some of his own
experiences in these chapters, he focuses on reporting what others have
experienced. Only in the final two chapters does he turn to the analysis of
these reports. So, in Chapter 8 he offers a "Rational Analysis." Here
he takes note of the reports and how they come to be. While he admits he cannot
vouch for the veracity of the testimonies, that doesn't mean these testimonies
don’t have value. He reminds us that while a single report, standing by itself,
might not be of much value, the overwhelming number of reports of similar
experiences requires at least some interest in the possibility that there is
some truth. He writes that "my conviction is this. If enough people
independently report the same sort of experience, that is reason to take
note" (p. 153).
While the prior chapter focuses on rational
analysis, it’s important to remember that Allison is not a social scientist or
a philosopher. He’s a biblical scholar and theologian. While the rational analysis
provides a foundation, Allison first and foremost has a theological interest in
the question of religious experience. Thus, in chapter nine he tackles the
theological issues involved in these discussions. After all, these are religious
experiences. So, he brings to the conversation his expertise as a biblical
scholar, using this expertise as a lens through which to interpret these
reports. Since there are those within the Christian community who question the
value of experience as an appropriate theological lens, he brings into the
conversation what is often known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Those who make
use of this lens suggest that it’s important that in addition to Scripture,
Tradition, and Reason, we consult Experience. Together the four sources of
authority can give us a broader understanding of what it means to be Christian.
As he engages in theological analysis, Allison warns against reductionism and
disinterest, again calling for openness to reported religious experiences. He
concludes the book by confessing that this isn't a how-to book or a manual for
mystics. Rather it provides an attempt to "enlarge understanding, as well
as to counter ill-informed prejudices." (p. 196).
There is a bit of boldness here. There
are few incentives for an academic of his stature to engage in such a
conversation. On the other hand, his long experience with academic study makes
him a perfect person to report on and explore these experiences. While in other
works he has functioned more as an academician, here he functions more as a
journalist, reporting testimonies with an openness to the possibilities without
embracing all of them. That is a helpful response.
Ultimately, this book is designed
to assist in pastoral responses to religious experiences. Thus, he closes EncounteringMystery by laying out the pastoral implications. While chapter 10 is brief
in scope, it is true to its title: "The Pastoral Imperative." We
often hear that religious scholars are more interested in talking to other scholars,
which is one reason they rarely take up topics such as this. In offering this
book, Allison brings his expertise to the pastoral realm, helping clergy and the
well-read layperson address questions of the validity of religious experience,
especially the more out-of-the-ordinary and mysterious experiences like Near
Death Experiences or Death Bed Visitations. Perhaps there is more to reality
than can be demonstrated scientifically! At the same time, it’s appropriate to
combine an open mind with a critical one!
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