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Knowing
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Revelation, Authority, Religious Tradition, and Faith

Two Approaches to Knowing

Logical Positivism (Empiricism)

Mid 20^th Century

"Only knowledge

Established by science

Established by ordinary sense perception

Is knowledge

This view omits:

Values

Principles

Preferences in the arts

Politics

Religion

Disciplines considered of lesser value

psychology, anthropology and sociology

Mid 20^th Century

W. V. Quine of Harvard

"Two Dogmas of Empiricism"

See link on website for full article

"The totality of our so-called knowledge or beliefs, from the most casual matters of geography and history to the profoundest laws of atomic physics or even of pure mathematics and logic, is a man-made fabric which impinges on experience only along the edges. Or, to change the figure, total science is like a field of force whose boundary conditions are experience. A conflict with experience at the periphery occasions readjustments in the interior of the field. Truth values have to be redistributed over some of our statements."

When a person claims to know something, he/she asserts at least three things:

The knowledge is true.

The person believes it is true.

This belief is based on adequate evidence.

Involves beliefs, the holding or thinking that "it" exists.

Accepts some method as legitimate ways of interpreting and verifying religious knowledge.

Believes that much religious truth transcends human reasoning.

Religious knowledge is used to guide the believer to religious truth.

Oral tradition of wisdom and revelation

Written documents—what does it say, what does it mean, how is it applied today?

The testimony of those who have had intense religious experiences

The wisdom from those who have followed special religious disciplines.

The wisdom from those whom the Spirit of the Divine seems to reside in a strinking way.

Revelation assumes something is hidden and that this something or someone has not been discovered, but rather, disclosed.

General Revelation

The awareness everyone has of God.

The letter to the Romans, chapter 1, verse 20:

"Since earliest times human beings have seen the earth and sky and all God made, and have known of God’s existence and great eternal power."

Specific Revelation

Personal experience of God; interaction between the Divine and the human being

A unique knowledge of God that comes from a particular historical experience through a historical person and happenings.

Example: The Annunciation (the angel to Mary, mother of Christ)

The Gospel of Luke

Chapter 1, verses 26-18

Three major dimensions

Different ways of knowing God.

Reason: Our ability to think about God, e.g., What was the "first cause" of all that is?

Human Experience: a combination of mind, feelings, physical responses, e.g., a sense of the presence of God and the resulting sense of love, peace, belonging.

Sense of Morality, of right and wrong: Human conscience; our authors point to this as the chief evidence of general revelation.

Various theological positions

Karl Barth, German theologian, early 20^th century

People cannot know God unless it is revealed to them.

Special revelation alone serves as a vehicle for saving grace.

Emil Brunner, German theologian, early 20^th century

Every person has the capacity for general knowledge of God

Alan Richardson, American, mid 20^th Century

Barth and Brunner both neglect the saving power that comes from the knowledge of God revealed outside of Christianity.

Soren Kierkegaard, Dane,19^th Century

Genuine religious truth must come from God by revelation

Apostles, prophets whose authority rests in the Divine.

The paradox Kierkegaard saw

A true understanding of Christianity negates ego desires and yet fulfills ones deepest hopes as God reaches out to all people to bring them into the presence of God’s love.

A Christian sect

All people are blessed with divine authority. Each believer experiences the indwelling Spirit of Christ…the Inner Light.

Is revelation necessary in order to have true religious knowledge?

Through what or whom would you be open to receive religious knowledge?

Have you experienced special revelation?

Tradition

Includes customs, doctrines, concepts and actions

Tradition is the central means by which religions pass on religious knowledge.

Provides stability in unstable historical contexts

Helps define and interpret beliefs and lifestyles

How do you understand "faith."-

Faith is not:

A belief in something for which there is no evidence.

Faith is not:

The opposite of knowledge

Faith is not belief (may include belief)

Faith is a reliance on, trust in and commitment to trust in something.

The tight rope walker example:
You may believe that a tight rope walker can push a wheelbarrow across the rope. Faith is getting in the wheelbarrow and letting him push you across.

A believer who lives out what he believes; authenticity

Scientists assume the universe is ultimately orderly and this order is discoverable.

Religious faith assumes the universe has meaning and purpose and that purpose is evident in human experience.

Note: Meaning may call for evidence of a different order than that of function, yet both are needed.

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Last modified: March 24, 2008