The Max-Weber-Center and especially the “Lived Ancient Religion” project was pleased to host ANN TAVES (Santa Barbara), a world specialist on religious experience, for a period of over three weeks, including a two-day workshop on “Religious Experience”.

Religious experience is a key concept of the Lived Ancient Religion approach, but simultaneously, religious experience is the most difficult concept to work with. The problem lies in the vast range of possible approaches ranging from philosophy and sociology up to psychology and cognitive science. Whereas one still debated problem lies in the curious idea of having a religious experience sui generis, another line of discourse debates the impossibility of analyzing something as deeply personal as somebody’s experiences.

With a clear emphasis on cognitive approaches, Ann Taves’ approach discusses philosophical, sociological and psychological discourses in a way that allows historians to rethink the aspect of religious experience expressed in their mostly very fragmentary material in these terms. Ann Taves’ approach both provides methods to pinpoint the variety of religious experiences (or experiences ‘deemed religious’) in historical texts as well as illuminating the various ritual strategies to that end.

The first day was dedicated to Ann Taves and her recent work on religious experience and its role for constituting religious communities, such as Alcoholics Anonymous and the Latter Day Saints movement (‘Mormons’). Ann Taves pointed out how experiences deemed religious serve as crucial communicative elements in forming communities. Again, her contribution helped to reconfigure how the Lived Ancient Religion project could approach religious experience.

On the second day, two contributors of the Lived Ancient Religion project, GEORGIA PETRIDOU (Liverpool) and MAIK PATZELT (Erfurt), illustrated the richness of the ancient material in these terms. Both reconsidered the importance of religious experience in antiquity. By introducing the hieroi logoi of Aelius Aristides, Georgia Petridou illustrated the variety of religious experiences in ancient pilgrimage. Maik Patzelt illustrated the variety of techniques for trance in ancient Rome.

The lively discussions shed new light on well-known material and illuminated the way in which new concepts and methods can be fruitfully applied to the religions of the ancient world. In result, religious experience appeared as a central concern in ancient religions. A deeper investigation of religious experiences in antiquity thus remains a highly recommended task.

Conference overview:

Ann Taves (Santa Barbara): The Role of Individualism in the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths

Georgia Petridou (Liverpool / Erfurt): Dying to See: Pilgrimage, Illness and Death in Aelius Aristides’ Hieroi Logoi

Maik Patzelt (Erfurt): Religious Experience in Ancient Rome