24 Spirituality Studies 9-2 Fall 2023 5 A Model for Examining Religionesque Experiences Finally, I would like to devote more attention to religionesque experiences. In this part, I will explain the term “resonant relationship” and show a connection between resonant, religionesque and religious (or mystical, spiritual) experiences. Hartmut Rosa has developed a social theoretical approach that he calls “resonance theory” (Rosa 2019). Rosa states that the pressures of social acceleration (Rosa 2013) undermine people’s ability to enter into resonant relationships. “Resonance is a kind of relationship to the world, formed through affection and emotion, intrinsic interest, and perceived self-efficacy, in which subject and world are mutually affected and transformed.” (Rosa 2019, 174). Resonant relationships are uncontrollable, never expected, and can never be forced to emerge. These uncontrollable relationships are the basis of the good life that everyone seeks (Rosa 2019, 2020). The characteristics of a resonant relationship – very much resembling William James’ characteristics of mystical/religious experience, namely ineffability, noetic quality, transiency and passivity (James 1982, 248–49) – show that they can be religionesque experiences. However, while resonance is applicable in many academic fields to explain relationships to the world and human life, religionesque experience is a concept for interpreting religion-related approaches. In this framework, I define religionesque experiences as experiences that have characteristics of resonant (Rosa 2019), and/or religious/ mystical (James 1982) experiences, but the experiencer has no clear affiliation to religious institutions and/or has spiritual or muddled beliefs (Gilliat-Ray 2005). This also suggests that religionesque experiences can be resonant relationships but not all resonant relationships are necessarily religionesque experiences (see Figure 1). Fig. 1. Religious experiences can be religionesque experiences and resonant relationships, and religionesque experiences can be resonant relationships. This model suggests that religious experiences can be religionesque experiences and resonant relationships, and religionesque experiences can be resonant relationships [5]. Sacred terms (e.g., “sacred”, “holy”, and “god”) can be placed in all three sets of this model. These terms have different meanings in a religious setting than in a non-religious one, where they simply mean something that is “special” or “more special than other things”. The use of sacred terms depends on the context, whether they are used with a religious overtone or not, and in an everyday context they can have a religionesque character. The religious/non-religious, sacred/profane or sacred/secular dichotomy has not yet been fully resolved and is still an important topic of academic debate. Until now, there seemed to be no adequate term for the transition in between. For something, that is both religious and non-religious. Something, that is considered religious (or spiritual) by others, but not by the experiencer. Something, that is sacred but located outside of religion. Hence, for example, the term “sense-of-thesacred” exists, which describes a religionesque phenomenon. resonant religionesque religious
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