Care relationships, testimony, and the argument from religious experience

Abstract

One issue that has been generating considerable debate within the philosophy of religion is whether or not certain religious experiences could provide at least some evidence towards justifying beliefs in the existence of a divine being. Within the literature, positive accounts are typically referred to as arguments from religious experience. I aim to contribute to this debate in two ways. First, many versions of the argument from religious experience rely on a simple perceptual model in order to understand and assess the evidential value of religious perceptual experiences. However, I shall be developing a specified perceptual model that allows for the relational dimensions of religious perceptual experiences to be taken into account. I refer to this model as the care relational model. Second. many versions of the argument from religious experience only include a superficial assessment of the role testimony plays in relation to justifying religious belief's grounded in religious experiences. I shall attempt to remedy this by assessing the evidential value of religious perceptual experiences in light of recent developments in the philosophy of testimony.