Medjugorje and the Supernatural

Science, Mysticism, and Extraordinary Religious Experience
Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-0-19-067920-0
Verlag: OXFORD UNIV PR

Buch, Englisch, 390 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 749 g

In 1981, six young people in the village of Medjugorje, in what was then Yugoslavia (now Bosnia-Herzegovina), reported that the Virgin Mary had appeared to them. The Medjugorge visionaries say that Mary has returned every day since then, bringing them important messages from heaven to convey to the world. Throughout history, people have reported visionary experiences--apparitions of the Virgin Mary, visions of Jesus Christ, weeping statues and icons, the stigmata, physical healings and miracles, experiences of the afterlife-- and interpreted them as supernatural in origin. Scholars have often tried to reinterpret such experiences, including those described by the great mystics like Francis of Assisi, Catherine of Siena, and Teresa of Avila, into natural or psychopathological categories, like hysteria, hallucination, delusion, epileptic-seizures, psychosis, the workings of the unconscious mind, or fraud. Are such reductionist explanations valid? Over the past three decades the Medjugorje visionaries have been subjected to extensive medical, psychological, and scientific examination, even while undergoing their visionary experiences. Daniel Klimek argues that the case of Medjugorje affords a rare opportunity to understand a deeper dimension of extraordinary religious phenomena. Presenting and analyzing the scientific studies on the visionaries in juxtaposition with the major scholars and debates surrounding religious experience, Klimek concludes that a multidisciplinary approach grants a more holistic and deeper understanding of such extraordinary religious experiences.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Klimek, Daniel Maria

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Religion & Wissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Christentum, Christliche Theologie Praktische Theologie Christliche Spiritualität, Christliche Mystik
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religion & Wissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- INTRODUCTION: The Silence of the Birds

- CHAPTER 1: The Young Woman on the Hill

- CHAPTER 2: Public Revelation and Private Revelation: How the Catholic Church Discerns the Supernatural

- CHAPTER 3: Mysticism in the Twentieth Century

- CHAPTER 4: The Great Debate

- CHAPTER 5: Medical and Scientific Studies on the Apparitions in Medjugorje

- CHAPTER 6: Medjugorje's Uniqueness: A Different Case Study for Neuroscience

- CHAPTER 7: Learning from Shortcomings, Moving Forward with New Methods

- CONCLUSION: Contributions to the "Eternal-Battleground"

- BIBLIOGRAPHY

Über Autor(innen)

Daniel Maria Klimek is a Franciscan friar and a Lecturer in the School of Franciscan Studies at St. Bonaventure University. He earned his PhD in religion and theology at the Catholic University of America.