Scripture’s Knowing: A Companion to Biblical Epistemology (Cascade Companions)
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Scripture’s Knowing is a guide to the emerging field of philosophical study of Scripture, specifically about knowing. Assuming that the Scriptures speak verbosely and persistently about knowing, what do the biblical authors have to say? How do they conceptualize ideas like truth and knowledge? Most importantly, how do we come to confidently know anything at all? Scripture’s Knowing follows the discourse on knowledge through key biblical texts and shows the similarity of biblical knowing with the scientific enterprise. The findings are linked to the role of ritual in knowing and implications for theologians and churches today.
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Key Features
- Provides a guide to the emerging field of philosophical study of Scripture
- Shows the similarity of biblical knowing with the scientific enterprise
- Follows the discourse on knowledge through key biblical texts
Contents
- Knowing: Biblical Language and Concepts
- Knowing in the Creation: Voices Carry
- Knowing in the Exodus: Pharaonic and Israelite
- Knowing in the Gospels: Disciples as Dolts
- Knowing through Ritual: Rite to Know
- Biblical and Scientific Knowing: Simpatico Enterprises
- Practical Implications of Biblical Knowing: The Discerning Church
- Further Reading
Top Highlights
“Rather, rituals are the authoritative instructions of the prophets meant to be listened to and practiced so that Israel might know what YHWH is trying to show her.” (Page 70)
“In short, truth is personal in the biblical texts. It requires our attention and our expectations over time. When something is true, it does what it ought to do or faithfully represents—it is trustworthy. This creates a very natural segue to a similar word group: trust.” (Page 10)
“Consider this: if the Scriptures teach that knowing well requires apprenticeship, then our ability to see beyond the presenting symptoms of life is proportional to the degree that we submit to our trainer’s instruction.” (Page 102)
“Knowing well entails listening to trusted authorities and doing what they prescribe in order to see what they are showing you.” (Page 16)
“However, the biblical authors presume that you must gain the skill through a guided process in order to see. Like a parent coaching their child’s first ride without training wheels or a medical student in a radiology course, we must embody guided processes in order to know. Once skilled, you see the world differently. Knowing is transformative, what Polanyi depicts as ‘the plunge by which we gain a foothold at another shore of reality.’3 Because it’s a skill, once you have it, the skill transforms you to just see something you could not previously see. You are different and, therefore, see differently.” (Page 5)
Praise for the Print Edition
Dru Johnson has done the impossible, giving us an utterly accessible introduction to the problem of how biblical narratives and laws go about offering us knowledge. If you want to understand the process by which we come to see what the biblical story is trying to show us, this is the place to start.
—Yoram Hazony, author, The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture and God and Politics in Esther
The many and varied streams of Dru Johnson’s own expertise and experience have blended into a single vision in this delightfully seasoned and profound work. Scripture’s Knowing is admirably pitched and packaged for easy access and dissemination. Buy it! Read it! Steep in it. Share it with your small group or class or congregation. This transformative understanding of knowing holds the prospect of blessing you, your church, and even culture.
—Esther Lightcap Meek, author, A Little Manual for Knowing
About Dru Johnson
Dru Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at The King’s College in New York City, cochair of the Hebrew Bible and Philosophy program unit in the Society of Biblical Literature, and a former Templeton Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies-Shalem Center (now The Herzl Institute) in Jerusalem.