





































Ecclesial Futures
2024 – Volume 5 – Issue 1

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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef19199

B O O K  R E V I E W

DOI: 10.54195/ef19199

Müller, Sabrina. 2023. Religious Experience 
and Its Transformational Power: Qualitative 
and Hermeneutic Approaches to a Practical 
Theological Foundational Concept
Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 978-3-11-100005-3

Reviewed by Shaun Joynt

This monograph is based on the habilitation thesis of Sabrina Müller who is 
Managing Director of the University Research Priority Program “Digital Religion(s)” 
and researcher and lecturer in Practical Theology at the University of Zurich (see 
https://communication.dsi.uzh.ch/member/sabrina-muller/). Within the research 
study Müller sets out to “search for traces of how young urban adults understand 
and interpret their religious experiences and relate them to their everyday lives” in 
order to “provide impulses for current practical theological theory formation on the 
horizon of social change” (3). Müller offers the reason for this approach as “personal 
experiences have become the individual point of reference and orientation for inter-
preting the world and understanding oneself and God” and “human existence cannot 
be understood … without experience [as it] is one of the most central concepts of 
practical theological research, social science, and humanities theory formation” (4). 
Her detailed exposition concerning religious experience as a practical theological 
challenge, sensitizing concepts, methodological choices and implementation, and 
her discussion and findings, all contribute to the value of the monograph as both a 
contribution to the current debate on religious experiences from a practical theolog-
ical perspective as well as an example of a well-executed research study.
Müller describes her research as an interdisciplinary study that is inductive, empir-
ical and contextually Western (European and North American), which offers a foun-
dational exploratory contribution to practical theological research by investigating 
“how and why urban people perceive their experiences as religious and how they 
categorize them and put them into language” (6). She conducts this in the paradigm 
of grounded theory by offering two sensitizing concepts, namely, religious experi-
ence (chapter 2) and human existence in late modernity (chapter 3) which includes a 

https://communication.dsi.uzh.ch/member/sabrina-muller/


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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef19199

focus on social changes with particular consideration of urbanity’s influence therein. 
This is followed by a detailed presentation of the results of the qualitative data 
 analysis (chapters 5–7). Finally, the inductively elaborated theories are discussed 
theologically (chapters 8–9).
Müller’s interest in religious experiences stems from numerous discussions 
concerning the topic during her ten years as a youth worker and six years as a pastor 
and she spends considerable time indicating the interaction between faith, research 
and reflexivity advocating that the “awareness of the interrelatedness of personal 
religious existence and academic theological work, especially concerning theolog-
ical preference and difference, does not hinder the necessary self-reflexivity but 
promotes it” (8).
Next, Müller goes into great detail concerning religious experience as a concep-
tual approach by considering an etymological definition of the word experience, 
contrasting experience (Erfahrung) and lived experience (Erlebnis), providing a 
brief historical overview of religious experience (Aristotle, Monasticism, Luther 
and Pietism), focussing on 1) sociological (Durkheim, Weber and Taves), 2) religious 
phenomenological (Schleiermacher, James, Otto and briefly Kant), and 3) theological 
concepts (Barth and Tillich) of religious experience. Next she covers human existence 
in late modernity by considering urbanity (Bauman etc.) and digital spaces (Harari, 
Schulz and Foucault) and how these two aspects contribute to an “individualized and 
pluralized space of experience” (40). Thereafter urbanity research is discussed and 
a case is made for its importance which includes the conditions and characteristics 
of being human in urbanity, for example, freedom and foreignness, individuality and 
sociality, as well as a section on the theological perspectives on life in the city.
Müller’s methodological interlude (chapter 4) includes her selection of grounded 
theory (leaning towards classic Glasserian), participatory action research (includes 
20 co-researchers), case studies (six groups in three locations) and focus group 
interviews (between two and four participants at a time). She offers particu-
lars of a survey consisting of five phases that is completed in a 90-minute period. 
These include a welcome and introduction (phase 1), a standardized questionnaire 
(phase 2), a creative approach to the topic, namely, making a drawing (phase 3), a 
biographical- narrative explanation of the drawing (phase 4), and a group discus-
sion (phase 5). Next she goes into great detail concerning the data collected from 
her 20 co-researchers in each of these phases (chapters 5–7) considering religious 
experiences (chapter 5) “as a snapshot in which a process is triggered” (116), associ-
ated with transcendence, “uncontrollability, (God) cognition, new insights, and high 
emotionality” (117) and that “the changes that come from it are the work of God or 
experiences of faith” (118). Chapter 6 considers the “inner aspects and basic obser-
vations on the religious experiences of the cross-case and cross-group evaluation” 
(119) which includes the importance of these religious experiences in the lives of the 



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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef19199

co-researchers, the role of religious imprinting, and the subjectiveness of the expe-
rience. Chapter 7 considers “religious experience and the change of the personal 
frame of reference [through a] cross-case and cross-group evaluation” (127) which 
includes changing the frame of reference processually through religious experiences 
– these religious experiences occur in everyday settings, and transformation “leads 
to a reinterpretation of one’s identity and position in the world and thus to a changed 
view of oneself, others, and the world” (169).
Müller’s interpretation of the results (chapter 8) includes practical theological anthro-
pological considerations (Knoblauch, Luhmann, Luckmann, Buber and Ricoeur), the 
epistemological character of religious experience (Tillich, Schottroff, Fischer, Ward 
and Gadamer), and “the transformative aspects of such experiences for personal 
life” (204) (Luckmann, Dalferth, Gräb and Tillich). Within this chapter a comprehen-
sive definition is offered based on the research, namely, “Religious experience is a 
Widerfahrnis with a God experienced as relational (relational event), which can trans-
form the personal frame of reference into the horizon of a Christian perspective of 
hope, whereby the interpretive and understanding handling of this experience is 
an integral part of the experience” (196). Chapter 9 provides a practical theological 
outlook, namely, Christian perspectives of hope. Here Müller shows the link between 
religious experience and lived theology (Tillich, Astley, Salazar, Luther and numerous 
others) and concludes that “prioritizing contextual religious experiences brings prac-
tical theology into the midst of life … and leads to the existential, meaning-giving, and 
liberating perspectives of hope of human life” (223).

An analysis of Müller’s monograph includes the theoretical framework used, method-
ology selected argument presented, evidence provided, contribution to the current 
debate and relevance to its intended audience.
The theoretical framework and methodology selected by Müller is grounded theory 
and this is suitable considering that her intent is to “discover” how and why her 
20 co-researchers have religious experiences. Classic grounded theory methodology 
(GTM) usually begins without a literature review; however, this is found problematic 
by some from a more traditional research background and thus her use of sensi-
tizing concepts ensures that there is an adequate literature background for the study 
without compromising GTM’s core values, that is, discovery. One of the outcomes in 
GTM would be a basic social process which in this case is not too clearly indicated 
as was done with the phases of the survey. Another outcome would be a substan-
tive theory or even grand theory, with the former being present in the monograph. 
In GTM, open, axial and selective coding is pursued until theoretical saturation is 
achieved and no new categories or themes emerge. Various themes are evident in 
the research study, for example, contingency, transcendence, subjectivity and lived 
religion.



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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef19199

The argument presented is contained in the comprehensive definition previously 
mentioned, that is, religious experiences are transcendental in nature and contextu-
ally related to God (notably this study is from a Christian perspective) and are experi-
enced relationally (with self and other humans) and often result in a transformation 
of the personal frame of reference that is associated with hope and “the interpretive 
and understanding handling of this experience is an integral part of the experience” 
(196). There is evidence of more than adequate engagement with numerous scholars 
and schools of thought concerning religious experiences that augment the argument 
throughout the monograph. This evidence includes engagement with sociological 
scholars (Durkheim, Weber etc.), theological scholars (Luther, Schleiermacher, Barth, 
Tillich, Gräb etc.), and philosophers (Aristotle, Foucault, Gadamer, Ricœur).
The contribution of this research to the current debate lies in its processual perspec-
tive of religious experiences as lived religion. These religious experiences are to be 
understood as “discursive phenomen[a] related to everyday life” (204), that they are 
liquid (not bound to the classical dualisms), that the person is both the subject and 
object of knowledge (see her exposition of the Hebrew word עדי meaning to recognize), 
and that Widerfahrnis captures the experience and resulting transformation and is 
to be viewed as “a relational gift of God” (194). One aspect that seems to be lacking 
is a legend indicating the convention used to identify the co-researcher’s words. For 
example, a footnote indicates “1 EZ L.A. 1 Abby, 12.16” (89) and it is not clear what 
each of these identifiers mean. This reviewer was able to ascertain that 1 = Group 1, 
EZ = (unclear), L.A. = Los Angeles (one of the three group’s locations), 1 = (unclear), 
Abby (the co-researcher’s name), 12.16 = (unclear).
The monograph’s relevance to its intended audience cannot be over-emphasized. 
First, it serves as an example of a well-researched and written PhD thesis. Secondly, 
it is freely available in electronic format via an open access publishing arrangement 
with De Gruyter which means students and lecturers as well as scholars interested 
in the topic of religious experience are able to retrieve it without cost (the hardcover 
is available for purchase). For these reasons it is highly recommended.

In conclusion, the research study succeeds in its aim to “contribute to a better under-
standing of every day, individual and social religious reality construction, religious 
imprints, and the emergence of religious identity” (6). At the end of the monograph 
Müller cautions her readers that “practical theological teaching and learning that 
does not take the (religious) experiences of students seriously and does not inte-
grate them misses its mission because the goal of theological education cannot be 
a dissociated contact between personal experience, lived everyday theology, and 
practical theology” (220). An apt ending indeed.



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Ecclesial Futures – DOI: 10.54195/ef19199

About the Author
Shaun Joynt, Senior Academic, South African Theological Seminary, South Africa.
shaun@sats.ac.za

mailto:shaun@sats.ac.za

