The Batson-Schoenrade-Ventis Model of Religious Experience: Critique and Reformulation

Abstract

A critique is offered of the 4-stage model of religious experience sketched by Batson, Schoenrade, and Ventis (1993). Drawing inspiration from Wallas's (1926) classic work on creative thinking, the Batson, Schoenrade, and Ventis (BSV) model of religious experience states that religious experiences go through 4 stages-existential questioning, self-surrender, new vision, and new life. Shortcomings of this model include the possibility that only the first 3 stages are really needed to describe religious experience; the need for the model to be more specific about the content of each stage, especially the second (self-surrender) stage; and the need for the model to take more cognizance of emotional factors in religious experience. In response to these criticisms, a revised model is proposed. This revised version of the BSV model describes only 3 stages-a stage of moral questioning; a stage of renunciation of worldly pleasures, in which intrapunitive behaviors are engaged in at a conscious and controlled level, but in which-one may hypothesize-positive self-evaluations are taking place at a more automatic, nonconscious level; and a stage of new vision, in which new patterns of mentation articulated at a nonconscious level during the second stage may gain ascendancy into consciousness as abrupt, intense experiences. Suggestions for empirical research predictions derived from the revised model are outlined.

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