ABSTRACT
Voice hearing as Christian religious experience is critically considered from the perspective of philosophy of religion. Four main contexts of voice hearing are considered in turn: mystical, crisis (including conversion, vocational, and near-death experiences), mental illness, and prayer. Examples, drawn from research and from recent autobiographical accounts, are found to illustrate the diversity of phenomenology of such experiences. Importantly, voices are rarely “just” voices, but are often associated with a sense of presence, and are inherently embedded within a (critical or uncritical) framework of assumptions and understanding.
