Reconsidering Religious Experience from the Perspective of Phenomenological Anthropology

A lthough religious experience is one of the core issues in the study of religion, anthropological works have not devoted enough attention to lived or felt states of being in a religious context.Rather, scholarship concerned with religious practices in mainstream anthropology has taken either an interpretative approach, put forward by Geertz's essay "Religion as a Cultural System," 1 or a social constructionist view, inspired by Asad's 2 critique of a universal definition of religion. 3 These have contributed a great deal to the understanding of the cultural and social context of religion, but have somehow neglected the subjectivity of religious experience or lived religiosity.This essay attempts to address religious experience from a phenomenologically informed anthroplogical perspective.I contend that religious experience is first and foremost an existential modality of engagement with the world.Specifically, I will articulate this position by reviewing major contributions to the study of religious experience and add new insights to the current literature, and thereafter introduce some 1.Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz (New York: Basic Books, 1973), 90-91.The author describes religion as a system of symbols, which in turn serve as carriers of meanings that establish powerful moods and motivations in individuals.2.