Knowing determines Understanding determines Meaning
Posted on June 24th, 2011
How we know what we know determines to a large degree how we understand reality to be constructed. How we understand reality to be constructed determines how we conceive and speak of God’s interaction with creation.
For example: If my epistemology (how I know what I know) tells me that authority rests in a singular figure head at the top of a strict and rigid hierarchy, then I will most likely have a cosmology (how understand reality to be constructed) based on strict hierarchies. This will, in turn, dramatically affect my theology (what I think and communicate about God).
Categories: Theology
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
It is God that does the changing in us, right, not us doing the changing…
Maybe I am jumping to way too many conclusions here:
In what ways are you trying to change your (and your readers’) mind(s) about the Christian faith?
In a nutshell, I’m trying to give a cohesive and consistent voice for what I’m calling an “Open Source Christian Faith.” The free ebook I link in the sidebar will give you a good idea what I mean by that.
I just wrote a paper on my own epistemology. It basically focused on nature and how all that we know to be “true” is reflected in nature.
It has become my goal to confront hierarchical thinking wherever I see it – and it seems like you’re still sort of on the fence with that.
I’d be interested to hear more about your take on epistemology.
I’m not on the fence about it at all. Everything in nature is nested. The question becomes “what kind of hierarchies are we talking about?” because I’m fairly certain the ones I’m thinking of and the ones you think I’m thinking of are not the same.
BTW, most of my thinking on epistemology is informed by the book “Women’s Ways of Knowing” by Belenky et al. Great read, if you haven’t already found it!
I just noticed on your website that you claim it is time for us to “morally evolve.” How do you square that with non-hierarchical realities?
M. Polanyi suggested that we come to know only that which we care about. We have to be personally invested in order to know or to understand. Theologically, we might say we come to care, about something or someone through love. What, then, if love becomes a foundation for what we ultimately come to know? Consider how this approach would transform the manner in which we relate to and perceive the world, others, self, even God.