There are two types of knowledge, he points out. (Actually, there are more out there, I am discovering. But, these two are what concern me right here, right now.)
- There’s “propositional” or theoretical knowledge: formulated beliefs about life and living that we give assent to in our minds over time (on the other side of some academic exercises)
- And there’s “experiential” knowledge: living understandings realized and appropriated on the other side of our more deeply and personally and existentially encountering and relating with objects of life and living
- There’s “propositional” or theoretical knowledge: formulated beliefs about life and living that we give assent to in our minds over time (on the other side of some academic exercises)
Here are words which frame the difference between a head approach to God and the Faith (framing doctrines, being able to speak reasonably about God and the Scriptures, etc.) and a contemplative approach (in which God and Faith are more deeply and fully encountered and experienced).
H.H. Farmer contends that if life is going to be “formative of the Christian life and character… [it] must be more than a mere statement assented to by the mind; it must be realized with a vividness not incomparable to that with which we are aware of personality in another.” (Porter, Lecture 3, 13:00 minute mark)
And yet, how much of my experience (and perhaps, yours?) has been like that which Bruce Demerest confessed in his Satisfy Your Soul:
“I tended to view the Christian faith largely in terms of rational propositions, so I loaded (and probably overloaded) my mind with intellectual analysis. True, I could wax eloquent about the mysteries of the Trinity or theories about the Atonement, but I didn’t relate that well to God on an everyday, affective level. I substituted knowledge of the Bible for knowing how to interact with God Himself, or a knowledge of His ways as He makes Himself known.” (Porter, Lecture 3, 18:10 minute mark)
Amidst it all, I find myself praying…
Like Thomas, the Doctor of old** –
Summa wrestling with God,
I come to a place
of laying pen aside
and resting
my weary head.
It’s futile
and exhausting
and has its limits—
this dissecting,
this domesticating,
this nailing God down
(yet again)…
and thinking we can
and should.
With other Mystics
in sweet communion,
the dumbfounded ox
invites me
to slow down,
to breathe,
to rest,
yea, to levitate—
encountering,
contemplating,
receiving
God and Neighbor and Life
as they are…
and not as I would have them
**St Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 – 1274) was a Dominican friar, an influential philosopher and theologian, and a jurist in the tradition of Scholasticism. As a “Doctor of the Church,” he is considered one of the Catholic Church’s greatest theologians and philosophers. His Summa Theologiae (1265–1274), often referred to as the “Summa,” is regarded as “one of the classics of the history of philosophy and one of the most influential works of Western literature.” (Ross James, 2003)
Later in life, a series of mystical experiences (including the ability to levitate) would change the course of Thomas’ career and ministry–seeing him walk away [or might we say “float away”?] from all his writings (including the unfinished Summa), which he regarded as empty “straw.”
Owing to his size and clumsiness in speaking, his peers referred to him as “the dumb ox.”