Christina M. Gschwandtner. Ways of Living Religion: Philosophical Investigations into Religious Experience. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024, xxiii + 347 pp.
European Journal for Philosophy of Religion December 20, 2024 Ingrid Malm Lindberg
Religious experiences are best understood not as isolated events but as ways of life. The book argues that phenomenology is the most suitable philosophical approach for examining these experiences. It explores various forms of Christian religious experience, including ascetic, liturgical, monastic, mystical, devotional, compassionate, and fundamentalist types. Rather than emphasizing religion's uniqueness, the work focuses on how these experiences speak to the human condition generally.