Meditations On The Idea of the Holy, Understanding Religious Encounter(s) & Re-Exploring a 50-Year-Old LMU Course

Forty-nine years ago I was a freshman Religious Studies major at Jesuit-run Loyola Marymount University and my very first class was Exploring Christian Mysticism, expertly taught by Father Herbert Ryan, S.J. Up to this point in my journey I was teenager who had spent two-years studying my bible as best I could, with my source of religious instruction being whatever home bible study I could attend (officially unaffiliated with any local church, but run by local older teenagers loosely connected with the Catholic Charismatic and Jesus people movements) and listening to Dr. J. Vernon McGee’s Thru the Bible Radio program. The first book we explored at LMU was Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy. It was dense and the language was on another level, but through it all I saw that Otto was describing the religious experience or religious encounter that I had as a 15-year-old kid. I did not expect to find my personal experience reflected in the words of this German philosopher and I had to know more.

I was reminded of these experiences because someone in a bible studies discussion group I attend referenced a video where the presenter talked about an indescribable experience he had that led him to explore human consciousness. The person who shared the video thought that it echoed the experience shared by another member of the discussion group (that person didn’t see the similarity… [fail trombone]). Nonetheless, the discussion led me to begin to re-read The Idea of the Holy, and resurface my notes and thoughts about that one class at LMU all these 49 years later.

This afternoon I attended the first session of a 27-session course hosted by the Biblical Studies Academy called Demons and Ghosts in the Bible. It feels very much like I’m doing archeology on my own life and re-exploring things that I experienced decades ago but had no context or voice to explore further than letting it all flow over me. This isn’t a bad thing, like I’m stuck in a rut or something. And I don’t know that any of this changes anything or will have any great significance as I write these next chapters of my life. But it means something, that I keep encountering these themes and experiences and energies, and it inspires me to explore and share and enjoy the road I happens to still be on. Fair warning that I’ll probably be babbling on about the Idea of the Holy and my notes from the Exploring Christian Mysticism class from almost half a century ago. Enjoy.