Życie rodzinne jako forma doświadczenia religijnego.

Religious experience is an extremely important aspect of sociological and psychological research on religiosity. Psychologist William James laid the foundations for the research activities by analysing his own experiences and those of other emotionally hypersensitive people. Observation of one’s “self” in this context allowed for the adoption of a way of defining religious experience and separating it from the category of religious feelings. Nowadays, a number of changes are taking place in the field of religiousness. Not only is social reality “separated” from religion, but also spirituality is defined on the boundary or beyond the categories of the Other or the sacred. Transcendence, spirituality, the reality “beyond” are increasingly seen in encounters with unusual cultural, ecological, virtual or recreational realities. The space of experience considered religious and serving as a component of new spirituality might be a forest, a sport activity, a city, a library, or a historic space. The following article is an attempt to reflect on whether family relations can be accepted, defined and researched today as a form of religious experience. If family life is experienced as contact with a reality that goes beyond everyday life, a reality “above”; if it gives meaning to human actions and constitutes a cognitive category; if it is a space of deep personal involvement, it seems that it can be treated and examined in terms of religious experience.