Lesson Objectives: I will know about
corporate experiences.
Hmk: Revise for end of unit assessment
Thursday 8th Oct
Tuesday will be a revision lesson.
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Corporate religious experiences are group
experiences – this is when a group of people,
as opposed to one person, say they have
experienced God.
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An example of corporate religious experience is
charismatic worship, which comes from the time of
Pentecost when the Holy Spirit gave the gift of
tongues to the disciples. This kind of worship,
where the speaker lays hands on the members who
then speak in tongues and perhaps even faint, take
place on Sundays around the world.
The Toronto Blessing in 1994 is the most famous
instance of charismatic worship, when churchgoers
in Toronto, Canada, said the Holy Spirit had visited
them and enabled them to speak in tongues,
laugh, cry, and even roar.
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What is going on? Watch the first minute of
this clip.
◦ Why do you think that many religious people
dismiss the authenticity of the ‘Toronto Blessing’.
◦ How might a charismatic Pentecostal respond?
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“Individual religious experience means individual
religious fantasy; corporate religious experience
means corporate religious fantasy.” Discuss.
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Corporate religious experience could be the result of
mass hysteria
There is no reason to suppose that a corporate
religious experience is any more true than a personal
one.
People’s prior beliefs or the environment they are in
at the time may make them more likely to believe the
experience.
Why would God bother to seem to hypnotise a small
group of people while at the same time do nothing
about famine, war and natural disasters that cause
millions to suffer?
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You have now considered various types of
religious experience: the numinous, visions,
voices, conversion and corporate.
In groups, you will be given a type of
experience to focus on. Come up with
◦ A definition
◦ A similarity to other experiences
◦ A key difference to other experiences
Students to take the ‘hot seat’ to face a barrage of questions
from the class.