Christianity and Knowledge

Foundational to my epistemology is faith. All of our knowledge is formed by certain categories that have developed in our minds. The modernist dream of finding a neutral, objective, and "rational" body of knowledge is just that - a dream. If postmodernism has done one positive thing, it has been to show that the constructs of the human mind do indeed influence our knowledge. Everyone is coming from somewhere and all knowledge is built upon epistemic assumptions that we hold to be true. These assumptions include; theism, atheism, pantheism, the New Age, existentialism, pragmatism, and countless other isms. All such isms are accepted on faith. This is because there must be a rock-bottom foundation that human reason can spring from. We cannot reasonably reason that reason is reasonable, for this always includes one basic assumption; that reason is reasonable. It is impossible to prove that he can trust our reason. It is impossible to prove that what we experience is reality for, if it is an illusion, all the tools that we use to prove thus are part of our reality and thereby themselves illusionary. Thus I take it as a matter of faith that God exists. This is not a "leap of faith" or fideism. I do not accept this faith blindly. Rather I accept this faith because I believe that it provides the best foundation for accepting all those things in life we accept to be true; reason, science, knowledge, morality, meaning, beauty. As C.S. Lewis said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not because I can see it but because by it I can see everything else. Also, reason is not excluded from faith. Rather from the standpoint of faith reason has been justified and the Christian can use it critically. The Christian can, from the standpoint of faith, use reason to buttress that faith and critically think about faith to ensure that it is coherent and consistent.

In the epistemology of Christian knowledge it is important to remember that all knowledge is God's knowledge. Christians often forget that even so-called "secular" knowledge is God's knowledge. When discussion the Renaissance, it is fashionable for historians to say that it was the "birth" or "rebirth" of secular learning. We should not, however, believe that simply because Renaissance learning was not dominated by theology (indeed I would say that even in the High Middle Ages learning wasn't solely about "theology") that the educational and scholarly trends of the Renaissance was "secular." The spiritual and the secular is a division drawn up by post-Kantian thinkers. To the Medieval or Renaissance mind, there was no such division. The exploration of history, the science, art, and literature were as much a part of the knowledge of God as theology proper. To them, all knowledge was truly God's knowledge because all thins, or rather all good things were created and sustained by Him. Many of the greatest minds that Christendom ever produced, men such as Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, and Edwards, very much treasured reason. As Augustine said, all knowledge of men, even that of the heathen, that is in accordance with faith is as gold and silver mined from the veins of God's knowledge and should be embraced by Christians.

In this way I view the Bible, not as an exhaustive body of truth as some fundamentalists see it, but as foundational. Since man is depraved because of original sin and distorts his reason, God sent his Word so that man would have a reference point of truth. The Bible gives us a foundation from which to build our knowledge upon. This does not mean that I view the Bible in a lesser sense than other Christians. I believe that the Bible is the absolute and final word on spiritual matters and matters of salvation. However, in the realm of politics, economics, history, and science I believe that the Bible is normative and not comprehensive. The Bible gives us foundations for these subjects such as the chief end of man, the characteristics of God, the finite characteristic our universe, the imago dei of man, and the depravity of man. With an understanding of these profound spiritual truths we can pursue learning in what is termed the "secular realm," though I would prefer to call it the temporal realm or the material. We must remember that the temporal and the material are creation of God and that he has deemed His creation "good." Therefore they are worthy of our study as Christians. Indeed God has commanded us to take dominion of the earth as His stewards. But again, I stress, we do not find answers to these questions in the Bible but rather they pursued by our reason, though a reason that is informed by the principles of Scripture and is guided by it.

I think I can best illustrate this by applying to the subject that I know best; history. Though the Bible is set in history and recordsmany historical facts (the kingdom of Israel, the coming of the Assyrians, the Exile, the rebuilding of the temple, and the Roman Empire, it is not a history textbook. The Bible gives only a sliver of ancient history. The history that it is most concerned with is the history of the People of God which is a spiritual history that is the sphere of special rather than natural revelation. Such a history is not, I believe, discernable from the academic study of history, but rather had to be revealed to us by God. We must also avoid, as Christians, to insert biblical providence into history. The only things we know about God's providence in history is limited to what is record about the events of Scripture. Christians must avoid the arrogance of believing they know for certain the purpose of God's hand in the events of most history (e.g. God let 9/11 happen because of gays). However, the Bible does inform us of God's sovereignty in history. We know that all events are ordained by Him and that nothing occurs which God did not make happen or let happen. Christians also know what the Bible says about man. Christians know the creative potential of beings created in the image of God as well as the depravity of creatures who suffering from original sin. Christianity supplies us with a moral compass to provide a basis from which to judge historical events and apply history to contemporary life (e.g. the Holocaust was morally wrong. Ultra-nationalism should be avoided because of the horrific results that it can bring). Finally, Christianity can humble us in the pursuit of history. As Christians we are fully aware of the imperfection of man. As Christians we know to avoid utopian ideals in both the political/societal and academic spheres. Christianity knows that perfect societies and perfect scholarship are beyond our reach, though we should strive for them (Christ commanded us to be perfect although he clearly knew our inability to be so). Christians can therefore imbue their scholarship and politics with a sense of humility