Through a Looking Glass

We all have a way of seeing our world.  God has given us eyes through which we are able to translate beams of light in such a way that we interpret images, sizes, shapes, colors, depth etc.  Our world comes to us as an amazing kaleidoscope because of our sight.

The way we wrestle with ideas and principles are no different: we come to them with our 'filters' already in place so that we can interpret them in a meaningful way.  The ways in which our filters are developed and formed are too numerous even to begin to describe--but they are there nonetheless. 

And they are powerful, because they not only help to form what we hold to be true but they are almost invisible to us.  We are mostly unaware of their presence and yet they are so significant in our understanding.

Here is a brief example:  In the West, we have been trained to think that knowledge comes to us primarily as an intellectual or rational way, but according to some, knowledge arises more holistically than just through reason.  In Brennan Manning's book Ruthless Trust we hear this explained when he writes "In the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, knowledge is felt, it arises from an experience of God in faith and love rather than from human investigation.  Knowledge is the fruit of a faith-encounter with Jesus as the Christ.  It is simply not possible to receive the revelation of God in the transcendent/immanent Christ without experience."

What makes this most interesting is the fact of a discussion I had recently with church leaders who taught that experience is something that should not be trusted as it afforded us no way of discerning the validity or rightness of what was taking place.  Instead of experience, scripture was to be where we find our safety and our guide.

Why is this interesting?  First, because experience and scripture were divided into two separate camps that could hardly be understood as complimentary, and second, Manning is saying just the opposite--that in the Christian scripture, knowledge is felt, according to the Hebrew way.

So here we see two God fearing people one teaching that experience is suspect in knowledge and the other saying that experience is necessary for knowledge.  So what do we do?

There are a number of important things we need to be aware of here but I will only offer one that I think is maybe most important.  We need to be humble.  Why is humility so important to knowledge? 
Well let me first say this before I explain:  I believe, through study, rational inquiry, experience etc, that Manning is right in his explanation of truth acquisition.  If the Hebrew mindset is that we understand knowledge through experience, that it must be felt in order to be fully understood, then I want to adopt what is closest to the worldview of the group through which God's truth was conveyed. 

So coming back to humility. . .two reasons:  first, as a Westerner, I must be humble enough to accept that the way in which I understand truth and knowledge might not be the best way and I might need to adopt another, in this case, the ancient Hebrew way.  Second, I must be humble enough to trust in a source of knowledge acquisition in which I am not able to be the primary mover--I can no longer use pure rationality to discover truth and control it and verify it, but because the kind of knowledge described here is much more relational and experiential in nature, I must be willing to receive this knowledge of truth. 

Scripture has been provided for us to experience the reality of a Living God.  This includes our thinking and our experiencing.  It is no easy thing to give up control in order to put yourself in the hands of someone else.  In the Western Christian Church, we struggle mightily against doing this, and one way we accomplish this task is to maintain control through our Western worldview of reason over all other things.  I should mention that what I am describing does not deny reason, simply that if we are to live in a truth that influences every part of our being, then we need to allow every part of our being to be involved in receiveing what that truth looks like.

To many this will sound heretical and simply dangerous.  I understand this wholeheartedly, and it only confirms the truth of how deeply embedded our worldviews actually go.  Jesus presented a way of living in which people were asked to put their entire lives in his hands, and many simply could not accept this request--the same is true today.  But I am confident that Jesus is able to overcome our worldviews in such a way that we can see and understand what is good and true--I just need to be humble enough to accept it, and Him as the center of all things.

Lord, as we peer through our looking glasses, help us to receive humility that comes from your Holy Spirit.  May we engage your scripture in such a way that we are able to receive the fullness of life you have in mind for us.  May we be wise and skillful travellers here on earth as we talk to each other about things that reach down into the core of our beings.  But most of all,

May you be glorified.

BT