"A" Judeo-Christian Theological Basis for Epistemology

(Outline only at this point--I will be 'fleshing it out' over time.)

Reality - That Which is Known

  1. Foundation in pre-existent Trinity
  2. Derivative Knowledge: Roots in Creation Act
  3. Derivative Knowledge: Nature of Created Reality
  4. The Issue of Mankind
  5. The Issue of Sin

Knowing - the Verb

  1. Elements
  2. The Interplay: Model of Dialogue
  3. Problems in the Interplay

Knowledge - The Result

  1. A look at the word: Objective K.
  2. "I know" is a statement about me; not about X. (??) Or rather, it seems to be a statement about MY relationship to X , with perhaps implications for the Ultimate Personal Context.
  3. Another Look at the word: Personal K.
  4. K = "a relationship that produces the ability to make accurate denotative paraphrases of the creation-witness to its own character and direction of action"

The Problem of Error

  1. The central problem in this model: "How Can We be Wrong?"
  2. NOTE WELL: This is the OPPOSITE problem from skepticism!! (A much better starting point!)
  3. Let's set aside willful overrides (ours or theirs) for the moment
  4. 1st cut: what are the ethical dimensions of cognitive mistakes?! [If EURP (Ethical URP--Jesus) couldn't make a FP (i.e. false predication), then would our FP would be sin?! (due to lack of URP?) Approach: ignorance of law is no excuse ('Israel sins and knows it not')--this argues that it WOULD be culpable. (This probably doesn't apply to the question, since the 'sin' was NOT in the ignorance, but in the violation of a specific cultic ordinance.) But ignorance ("I don't know") NOT = being false ("I know X", but I am wrong) But we may still have the EURP problem]

Special Case: Divine Revelation

  1. Basic model is personal revelation
  2. Radical cognitive/consciousness continuity between Author/recipients; peripheral discontinuity
  3. How do we know a person P? - patterns of experience; they condition each subsequent experience (hermeneutical context). That is, how I interact with Joe today forms an interpretive context for tomorrow's dealings with him.
  4. Sample patterns from 'invisibles': The man Friday, the nightshift roommate
  5. Now where are the evidences/audit trails of this Person?
  6. The issue of Hermeneutics
  7. Disclosure and Trust

Theistic vs. Christian Epistemology

  1. Theistic: = order, personal, relational, telic (revelation, blessing)
  2. Christian: The person of Christ
  3. Christian: The Work of Christ

To be continued....


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