Stackhouse describes his book as \u201cgeneral epistemology,\u201d by which he means that it covers a wide array of topics in epistemology. It does, indeed. The book begins with a description of the current situation in epistemology, with descriptions of three senses of pluralism and four cognitive styles: the enlightenment mentality, romanticism, a process approach, and the postmodern mentality. It moves to the vocation motif \u2014 what humans were created to do with their lives and, specifically, what Christians are to be doing with their lives. The book\u2019s basic idea is captured in the phrase, \u201cvocational epistemology\u201d: because God means for us to fulfill our vocations, God will see to it that we know enough to do so. After explaining this idea, Stackhouse gives accounts of five resources that can be used to fulfill our vocations \u2014 experience, tradition, scholarship, art, and scripture \u2014 along with three modes of apprehension \u2014 intuition, imagination, and reason. In the remainder of the book he treats a number of other issues in epistemology, including the authority of the Bible, the social context of our thinking, and the principle of proportionate assent. . . .<\/p>\n
Other insights that readers may appreciate include Stackhouse\u2019s remark that a hermeneutic of suspicion needs to be balanced with a \u201chermeneutics of love\u201d (189), that \u201cknowledge making is always political\u201d (192), and that beliefs are contained in \u201cwebs\u201d \u2014 in \u201cconstellations\u201d of beliefs (156, 161). He says this last fact means that: \u201cdisagreements are not always over particular propositions A or B, but over entire complexes of ideas, whole models of explanations that in turn reside within worldviews\u201d (160). And this fact, in turn, means that knowing \u201cis not simply a matter of \u2018S-knows-that-p,\u2019 the classic formulation in analytical philosophy\u201d (160), and that sometimes people \u201cmay literally talk past each other\u201d when disagreeing about a particular claim (161). . . .<\/p>\n
A last theme that needs more attention is the vocational epistemology that promises \u201cGod\u2019s sufficient provision for the basic calling of every Christian\u201d (242). This calling involves the \u201cprimal commandments to love God, love our neighbors, and love the rest of Creation\u201d (71). That is, if God calls us to live in certain ways, then God will see to it that we possess the knowledge that is required to fulfill that call. Stackhouse\u2019s inference from this central claim is that we can be confident that we actually do have knowledge \u201cof the world.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
HT:\u00a0 Korey Maas<\/p>\n