American philosopher and Harvard psychologist William James once said that the very core of religion is experience and emotion—all else revolves around experience. In his book, The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, he defines religion as “the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine” (James 38). Experience plays a key role in the understanding of religion as a whole and is considered one of the various “dimensions” of religion. A large majority of the Bible, itself, can be seen as a collection of various significant experiences—encounters between man and God that have shaped the history of God’s
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God then instructed Ezekiel to go preach to the Israelites, telling him that though it is no easy task, he must not be afraid. While the preceding chapter focuses much on the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the second chapter reinforces the numinous experiential dimension by emphasizing the concept of the Wholly Other—an idea attributed to 20th century German theologian Rudolf Otto that states that God and the divine is something completely separated and different from Man and the mundane. The Wholly Other is something completely other than the person encountering it as well as mysteriously other in quality from the things and people of this world. This is otherworldliness is exemplified first by the start of Ezekiel 2 in which Ezekiel falls onto his face—a human reaction to a magnificent presence—leading to the Holy Spirit entering his body and rising him to his feet—a work of divine powers. Several instances of repetition throughout the chapter also emphasizes this difference. In God’s message, for instance, He continuously refers to Ezekiel as “Son of man”—a title which occurs 93 times in the Book of Ezekiel “in the non-messianic sense of man’s finite dependence and lowliness in the presence of God’s infinite power and glory” (Selby and West 331), which further highlights the separation between divine and mortal in Ezekiel’s encounters with God.. While mentioning the Israelites, God calls them a “house of rebels”, addressing not only the difference between his holiness and their mundaneness, but also the spiritual rift that has formed between God and His people now that they have begun sinning and rebelling against
God then instructed Ezekiel to go preach to the Israelites, telling him that though it is no easy task, he must not be afraid. While the preceding chapter focuses much on the mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the second chapter reinforces the numinous experiential dimension by emphasizing the concept of the Wholly Other—an idea attributed to 20th century German theologian Rudolf Otto that states that God and the divine is something completely separated and different from Man and the mundane. The Wholly Other is something completely other than the person encountering it as well as mysteriously other in quality from the things and people of this world. This is otherworldliness is exemplified first by the start of Ezekiel 2 in which Ezekiel falls onto his face—a human reaction to a magnificent presence—leading to the Holy Spirit entering his body and rising him to his feet—a work of divine powers. Several instances of repetition throughout the chapter also emphasizes this difference. In God’s message, for instance, He continuously refers to Ezekiel as “Son of man”—a title which occurs 93 times in the Book of Ezekiel “in the non-messianic sense of man’s finite dependence and lowliness in the presence of God’s infinite power and glory” (Selby and West 331), which further highlights the separation between divine and mortal in Ezekiel’s encounters with God.. While mentioning the Israelites, God calls them a “house of rebels”, addressing not only the difference between his holiness and their mundaneness, but also the spiritual rift that has formed between God and His people now that they have begun sinning and rebelling against