FLORIN LOBONŁ ONTOLOGICAL PROOF AND THE CRITIQUE OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE Florin Lobonł British Idealism and Collingwood Society, Wales University, Cardiff, United King- dom and Society for Philosophy in Practice, United Kingdom Author of: Hermeneutica nebuniei: filozofie şi contraraţionalitate (forthcoming), Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial in Central and Eastern Europe/Historiography of the Holocaust (2004), Noua metafizică engleză—o regretabilă necunoscută (2002). Email: florin.lobont@tiscali.co.uk Abstract: Focusing mainly on a number of unpublished texts by Collingwood, especially his “Lectures on the Ontological Proof of the Existence of God,” the study examines the English philosopher’s innovative interpretation of the Anselm’s main contribution to the philosophical-theological tradition. Collingwood insightfully shows how the ontological argument can be used in analyzing and discussing the religious experience, not in trying to formulate a logical proof of God’s existence. When abstracted from the individual’s practical religious life, that is, from the experience of prayer, worship, and the like, mind’s awareness of God cannot be understood. Resorting mainly to Anselm, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Descartes, Collingwood argues that the externality of the Platonic absolute is that of an absolute transcendent whereas the Christian God is not only conceived as the transcendent cause of all things, but also as the immanent spirit in them. By asserting the unity of the mind—regarded as identical with its acts—this interpretation is meant to serve both as a means towards self-knowledge, and as a starting point for a future conceptual unification of religion and philosophy. Key Words: ontological argument, religious mind, religious experience, faith, common- sense realism, absolute presuppositions, transcendence, immanence Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, vol. 9, no. 27 (Winter 2010): 157-174 ISSN: 1583-0039 © SACRI