Questions on Dewey and Stace

William O'Meara (c) copyright, 1997

Answer the following questions by writing full sentences. If I ask you to discuss an issue, please consider at least two different views of the issue along with your evaluation of the reasoning for the two different views. If I ask you to give your personal response to a question or to state what would be personally meaningful to you from this material, please be sure to give a full answer rather than a short one.

Lecture on Religion vs. the Religious

  1. What are the two approaches to religion? Do they share anything in common?

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  2. What is Dewey's thesis about religion and the religious?

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  3. What is the Oxford definition of religion? Give an example from a religion which you know which exemplifies the three aspects of religion.

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  4. Do all the ways of exemplifying this definition fit into a consistent set of beliefs and practices that can be held without contradiction? Explain.

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  5. Why does Dewey hold that there should be a continuing change and development of our understanding of religion?

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  6. Is religious experience proof that one's concept of God is the truth? Discuss whether or not you personally agree with Dewey's answer and his reasoning for it.

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  7. Explain what is the religious aspect of an experience?

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  8. Explain why the sense of the whole universe or whole self is an imaginative sense of the whole.

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  9. When is morality religious in quality?

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  10. Explain whether or not Dewey's grasp of the religious exemplifies the Oxford definition.

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  11. Why does Dewey hold that faith in the continued disclosure of truth through cooperative human inquiry is more religious in quality than is faith in a completed revelation?

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  12. Distinguish with Dewey two ways of conceiving of God.

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  13. Why does Dewey reject one conception of God and accept the other? Discuss whether or not you agree.

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  14. Why does Dewey raise the problem of evil and suffering?

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  15. How does Dewey explain why evil occurs, and how does he respond to the problem of evil and suffering with his view of religious faith?

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  16. What deep connection does Dewey find between the evolving human community and all the things in civilization which we value the most? Explain this connection.

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  17. Give examples of such things in your life which you value highly and which are deeply connected to the evolving human community.

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  18. What personally have you gained from studying John Dewey's understanding of religious experience and religious faith?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Questions for Stace's "What is Mysticism" in The Continuing Quest, pp. 155-167

  1. Distinguish in an example between an experience and different interpretations (p. 156).

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  2. Identify some things which mysticism is not (p. 156).

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  3. Explain why mystical consciousness is different from sensory-intellectual consciousness (p. 157-8).

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  4. What is the core of mysticism (p.158-9)?

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  5. Describe an extrovertive mystical experience (p. 159-160).

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  6. Describe an introvertive mystical experience (p. 160-161).

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  7. Why is this new kind of consciousness completely paradoxical (p. 163)?

 

 

 

 

 

8. Give three reasons why mysticism usually takes on a religious form (bottom 164-165).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. What are the ethical aspects of mysticism (p. 165-166)?

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  2. What are the alternative interpretations of mysticism (p. 166-7)? Discuss whether both interpretations are reasonable. Which interpretation do you prefer and why?

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  3. Describe a personal experience in which you felt a deep sense of unity or connection with nature or other people or yourself or the Divine Reality (of God as you conceive of God) or even the whole cosmos.

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  4. How would the material from Dewey and Stace offer you alternatives in interpreting this profoundly unifying experience? What personal meaning have you in fact drawn from this experience?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have comments or suggestions, email me at omearawm@jmu.edu