Vol. 27 No. 59 (2023): The mystical-religious experience

What is the relationship of philosophy with the mystical-religious experience? Philosophy, as the maximum realization of thinking, is an investigation whose purpose is to make understandable the fundamental experiences that constitute living. For this reason, the philosopher cannot omit the relative analysis of the way in which the relationship with God and the gods determines the understanding that man has of himself, of the world in which his daily life develops, of others. , of things and of the totally Other.

In recent years there has been a boom in philosophical studies on religious and mystical phenomena. As soon as the erroneous idea that the religious attitude was a consequence of ignorance and that it would disappear with the progress of scientific knowledge was overcome, the need to investigate became evident, starting from the recognition that religion is a transcultural phenomenon: Why? What impact does the way in which each society represents the divine in its form of organization have? What are the essential features of the religious phenomenon? In what sense does religion found the meaning of the world and existence?

Under the awareness that, in addition to facing the specific problems of each era and context, philosophy cannot neglect perennial questions, the articles that make up the monographic section of this issue respond to diverse philosophical and theological approaches and references.

Its authors have in common the desire to understand some aspect of the religious experience; but they differ in their approaches and contributions, which range from reflection on the ethical repercussions of the experience of God, to the call to courageously assume that the god-concept of metaphysics “has died.”