Description
Trade ReviewKlimek's impressive study manages to bring faith and science into earnest conversation in a manner that is both learned and accessible ... This is an important book for anyone desiring a way to think about religious experience that betrays neither faith nor science. * Luke Timothy Johnson, Commonweal Magazine *
Klimek deals with this need to know about the nature of the phenomenon, which in this case is something quite extraordinary. In particular, he responds to a major and recurrent ploy that aims to undercut the whole phenomenon by pathologizing it. * Michael Grosso, Religious Studies Review *
Like many past entries into this field, Klimek trains his gaze on the scientific study of religious experience, in this case studies that have been done on the psychology and neuroscience of a small group of visionaries who have, for over thirty years, claimed to see daily apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the Balkan village of Medjugorje. What makes Klimek's book noteworthy - and ambitious - is his insistence that these studies both prove the authenticity (and supernatural nature) of the events at Medjugorje, and provide a new framework for cooperation between science and religion. * Samuel J. Gee, Reading Religion *
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION: The Silence of the Birds CHAPTER 1: The Young Woman on the Hill CHAPTER 2: Public Revelation and Private Revelation: How the Catholic Church Discerns the Supernatural CHAPTER 3: Mysticism in the Twentieth Century CHAPTER 4: The Great Debate CHAPTER 5: Medical and Scientific Studies on the Apparitions in Medjugorje CHAPTER 6: Medjugorje's Uniqueness: A Different Case Study for Neuroscience CHAPTER 7: Learning from Shortcomings, Moving Forward with New Methods CONCLUSION: Contributions to the "Eternal-Battleground" BIBLIOGRAPHY
