We all love a bit of ecstasy, don’t we? Not the drug (though that’s a form of ecstatic experience) but, more broadly, those moments of expansion, elation and awe we sometimes feel, when our heart-strings seem to vibrate in harmony … Continue reading
Dr Jem Bloomfield is an academic, playwright and critic, with particular expertise in early modern theatre. His PhD was on the production history of John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi. He is the author of the quiteirregular blog. Here Jem discusses the … Continue reading
Around a quarter of the world’s two billion Christians now sign up to the Pentecostalist or neo-Pentecostalist belief that God talks to them. That includes some educated people like, say, the Archbishop of Canterbury. How is this possible, in an … Continue reading
I’ve just re-read William James’ Varieties of Religious Experience, which he gave as a series of lectures in 1902. It is a marvelous book, in which James attempts to take a pragmatic and empirical approach to religious experiences, remaining open … Continue reading