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3.j.i - Truth

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10 views

3.j.i - Truth

Uploaded by

byron.a.lathrop
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Truth: How (and what) do we know?

[Epistemology & Divine Revelation]


Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I
give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling
up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming
here to draw water.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
-John 4.13-16
I. Intro to topic
a. Epistemology is a scary term, but it’s simple in its definition. Study of how we come to
know anything.
b. We are NOT going to be talking about subjective/objective truth, that’s what some
papers are for, rather we are talking about two things: 1) How do we come to know
anything (the process of knowledge) and 2) Why does this matter for our lives of faith?
c. We’re going to start with a broad introduction to the idea(s) of truth, then get into Meek
and the direct processes involved.
d. Need you to pick one of the three things to learn: Juggling, Throw a spiral, or Pen Flip
thingy.

II. Finish this statement: Knowledge is…


a. How we answer this question says a lot about our perspective of the function of
knowledge…
b. “To be human is to be a knower.” This is not a choice, but what is a choice is how we use
what we know.

III. How do we come to know about Reality (def: anything and everything God has created)?
a. Natural means:
i. Senses, Experience, Logic/Reason, Nature/Natural Law, Philosophy, etc.
b. Revelation:
i. Experience, Divine Revelation, Faith, Theology, Doctrine, History, etc.
c. What are the limits of each of these modes of knowledge?
i. Natural: Subjective, Intellectual, Bound to the world,
ii. Revelation: Subjective, exclusive, mystery,
d. Our difficulty with this topic exists when we presume that knowledge can only come
from one or the other instead of both.
i. When we do this, we reduce knowledge/truth and turn it into something that it is
not!
e. When we separate these two modes of knowing, we become epistemological dualists
(Meek, 2).
i. Knowledge v Belief; Facts v Opinions, interpretations, values, morals; Reason v
Faith, emotions; Science v Art, imagination, religion; Theory v Application;
Objective v Subjective; Public v Private; Mind v Body; Male v Female…
1. These dualisms are a direct result of a knowledge-as-information
mindset...
ii. How does this dualism impact us as humans?
1. Disintegrates and dehumanizes us. How? (Think of people who interact in
the world through purely intellectual or sentimental perspectives…)
2. Key terms: Disengagement, Irresponsibility, Indifference, Boredon,
Cluelessness, Hopelessness, Skepticism, Distrust of Reality, Cynicism,
Compartmentalization, Disembodiment, etc...
IV. Is faith a form of knowledge? It depends on how you approach knowledge (USE THIS TO
LEAD INTO KNOWLEDGE AS LOVE MINDSET)
a. Know as I leads to logical positivism
i. “If you cannot prove it to me through evidence and rationality, toss it to the flames.”1
What do you think about this quote? Valid or no?
ii. Through this lens, much of reality cannot be deemed valid.
b. Know as L leads to a faith discovery…
i. “Religion, considered as an act of worship, is an indwelling rather than an affirmation. God cannot
be observed, any more than truth or beauty can be observed. He exists in the sense that He is to be
worshipped and obeyed, but not otherwise; not as fact–any more than truth, beauty or justice exist as
facts. All these, like God, are things which can be apprehended only in serving them.”2
ii. John Calvin writes, “Faith rests not on ignorance, but on knowledge… [it is] a certain knowledge
of God’s benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both
revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”3
iii. “In the absence of conviction, I’ve come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable
corollary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the bargain—which doesn’t strike me as
something to lament. Accepting the essential inscrutability of existence, in any case, is surely
preferable to its opposite: capitulating to the tyranny of intransigent belief.”4
iv. This reality is why Thomas gets a bad rap…
1. We view faith through a dualist system of faith v doubt. Living in a
post–ascension world, the posture of faith is one of confident trust opposed
to ironclad certainty.
2. What does this mean? Doubt is a natural by-product of faith, that does NOT
negate our life of faith but is an expression of desiring to know more. We
should all be like Thomas where we desire to put our fingers in the side
of Jesus. It isn’t about having certainty, it is about DISCOVERY.
c. If you do not desire to know, then knowledge will always elude you (think of the
examples of school…)
d. Knowledge-as-love leads to a posture of discovery and life-long learning in the world.
i. Reality is infinite in terms of our interaction with it (world between two minds),
and we CANNOT exhaust it.
1. Example: What would my marriage look like in Know-as-Information vs
Love mindset?

V. Coming to know is a pilgrimage...p.6,8 “We journey towards what we do not know”...”We are
always on the way.” AND “We risk our forever being changed. It is an adventure.”

1
David Hume.
2
Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge, 295
3
John Calvin, Institutes, III.2.2 and III.2.7
4
Krakauer, Under the Banner of Heaven, 339

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