The Relation between Religious Experience and Religion’s Dimensions

Religion has different aspects and dimensions including doctrinal, moral, empirical, mythical-narrative, ritual, social, and material ones. Religious experience is one of the dimensions of religion and is a significant religious fact and aspect that has diverse relations with other dimensions of religion. Hence, recognizing the kind of religious experience’s relations with religion’s dimensions has its special significance. So the question of research is what relations can be conceivable between religious experience and the dimensions of religion? To answer such a question, first, we should pay attention to the importance of different tendencies toward religion and religious experiences, that is, our understanding of religious experience defines its relation with religion’s dimensions. Our understanding of religion, also, is significant in determining its essence and diverse aspects or dimensions. In this case, considering two important religious traditions of the world, namely classic monotheism and atheism, we can notice the significance of the Transcendent Being or Sacredness/Divine aspect of religion, and think of some dimensions of religion such as doctrinal, moral, mythical-narrative, empirical, social, ritual or material that each one has its special relation with religious experience, although creedal and ritual ones can be more respectable. In this case, it seems the doctrinal dimension can make or interpret religious experiences, ritual and worshiping dimention shows and manifests its symbolic repeatation. Mythical-narrative one can transfer virtues of religious experiences to the next generations, moral one can make and extend the results of religious experiences, and material one can manifest externally and make the background for the next religious experiences. In the meantime, paying attention to noticeable theories such as essentialism and structuralism about religious experiences, and dividing them into two nouminous and intuitive-theoretical experiences, can make complicated and plural of their relations with some dimensions of religion.