Religious Experience and Its Transformational Power: Qualitative and Hermeneutic Approaches to a Practical Theological Foundational Concept

Description

Open Access The author approaches the phenomenon 'religious experience' through a qualitative study in which young, urban people from Europe and the USA are empirically examined. It becomes clear that individuals themselves are constructive agents of experience and theology. Religious experience manifests itself as a transformative perspective of hope in the lives of young people. The study ends with a plea for a theology from below, based on liberation theology and feminist theories, in which contextual perspectives are central to practical theological theorising. Preface Contents List of figures 1 Introduction: religious experience as a practical theological challenge Part I Sensitizing Concepts Introduction 2 “Religious experience”: a conceptual approach 3 Human existence in late modernity Part II Methodological Interlude Introduction 4 Practical theology within the horizon of qualitative social research – Methodology Part III A Grounded Theory on the Change of the Frame of Reference through Religious Experience Introduction 5 Individual case presentation: the content of religious experience 6 Excursus: Inner aspects and basic observations on the religious experiences of the cross-case and cross-group evaluation 7 Processual aspects: Religious experience and the change of the personal frame of reference – cross-case and cross-group evaluation Part IV Discussion and Outlook Introduction 8 Interpretation of the results within the horizon of the initial questions 9 Experiencing the Christian perspectives of hope – a practical theological outlook 10 Bibliography Register