Is this a typo or am I misunderstanding the text?

The Essentials of Prayer by E.M. Bounds in chapter 9, page 43 reads:

"A Scriptural standard of religion includes a clear religious experience. Religion is nothing if not experimental. Religion appeals to the inner consciousness. It is an experience if anything at all, and an experience in addition to a religious life."

Should it read "Religion is nothing if not experiential" instead of experimental?

Thanks,

Ron

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Floyd Johnson

The Essentials of Prayer by E.M. Bounds in chapter 9, page 43 reads:

"A Scriptural standard of religion includes a clear religious experience. Religion is nothing if not experimental. Religion appeals to the inner consciousness. It is an experience if anything at all, and an experience in addition to a religious life."

Should it read "Religion is nothing if not experiential" instead of experimental?

Thanks,

Ron

An on-line version of your book suggests that you are correct., Of course, there is no proof that the on-line publisher did not change the text themselves:

Alex Scott

Experimental would be the correct rendering. It's the old, outdated meaning of the word which was current when Bounds was writing, but we would say experiential today.

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/219969#Comment_219969

Alex is correct and the Logos resource is correct. Definition 2 from the Century Dictionary (published 1913) is "Taught by experience; having personal experience; known by or derived from experience; experienced." [PLEASE go bid on the Century Dictionary in community pricing!! It's an awesome resource for looking up old definitions like this]

Here's a screenshot from the scanned print edition on Google Books:

Another print edition on Amazon.com also has experimental.

Ronald Quick

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/219972#Comment_219972

Thanks for all the replys.

I've already placed my bid for the Century Dictionary too. Hopefully more people will do so also.

Dr. Charles A. Wootten

That's interesting. My print copy uses the word "experiential" in that sentence under discussion ( found in Essentials of Prayer, Ch. 9). The entire pericope shows variations on the word "experience."

I use Webster's 1828 dictionary for "all things KJV" (my euphemism for older word usage) showing the following for the word "experimental."

4. Taught by experience; having personal experience.
Admit to the holy communion such only as profess and appear to be regenerated, and experimental christians. H. Humphreys.
5. Known by experience; derived from experience; as experimental religion.
Webster, N. (2006). Noah Webster's first edition of An American dictionary of the English language. Anaheim, CA: Foundation for American Christian Education.

So, one does wonder whether recent editors of recent editions have taken the liberty to "fix" some wording. If so, that's too bad. I use the outdated words as a teaching moment.

I do have dibs on the Century Dictionary, but Webster will remain my primary resource.

Hey, Rosie or MJ: Ever wonder why the titles in L4 have words that are not capitalized such as the words "first edition" and "dictionary" and "language" in the above bibliographic data? Is there a recent change that I may have missed because I'm nearly ancient and decrepit[;)]...? thanX!!

{charley}

Rosie Perera

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/220066#Comment_220066

Hey, Rosie or MJ: Ever wonder why the titles in L4 have words that are not capitalized such as the words "first edition" and "dictionary" and "language" in the above bibliographic data? Is there a recent change that I may have missed because I'm nearly ancient and decrepit...? thanX!!

If you notice stuff like that, it's a metadata bug. The bibliographic data is separate and doesn't just come from the title of the book, which could be correct in your library and still have wrong capitalization in the bibliographic citation. You can report such problems on the wiki page: metadata correction proposals. Are you comfortable editing a wiki page? Just click the Edit button, type your text into the relative section, and click Save.

Frank Fenby

Should it read "Religion is nothing if not experiential" instead of experimental?

My father-in-law, who is almost 96 and still actively teaches seminary courses, often uses "experimental" where I would expect "experiential" when discussing the Christian Life.

Dr. Charles A. Wootten

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/220125#Comment_220125

Are you comfortable editing a wiki page?

Hah! Since I've never tried, can't say. However, it'll be interesting to see whether I do it correctly. I can't do it before late in the weekend as I'm off doing exploits, but will look into it once I've settled back down. I've noticed a great many similar errors in the bibliographic data over the past several months in lots of resources. Thank you.

{charley}

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