Is Faith a Path to Knowledge?

Abstract

In this paper, I consider whether (religious) faith has any role to play in conferring positive epistemic status to (especially religious) beliefs. I outline several conceptions of faith that have been historically important within Western religious traditions. I then consider what role faith might be supposed to play, so understood, within the framework of internalist and externalist accounts of knowledge. My general conclusion is that, insofar as faith itself is a justified epistemic attitude, it requires justification and acquires that justification only through the regular faculties for contingent truths: sense perception and reason. I also argue, however, that the operations of our cognitive faculties in arriving at epistemic judgments on matters of substance are sufficiently complex, subtle, and often temporally prolonged, to make it exceptionally difficult to reconstruct the cognitive process and to judge whether it meets standards of rationality.

Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry

“…The term "socio-historical" itself suggests a compilation of diverse methods, particularly historicaldescriptive, theoretical, and social-analytic forms of inquiry. 36 As such, the historical, social-scientific, and cultural-analytic elements work symbiotically together, correcting and regulating the findings of each discipline to produce a more refined and contextually-based study of religion than mere theological or basic comparative methods could produce on their own. 37…”

“…Tippin expresses himself as a defender of national identity, and this message was obviously close enough to how the country music community wanted to imagine itself after (and, arguably, before) September 11 to earn Tippin a small fortune (a portion of which he donated to the Red Cross). 36 The fact that these songs were written before 9/11 indicates that many of the sentiments expressed after that day were not new developments; rather, they were extensions, reiterations, and reformulations of ideas that are pervasive in country music in general. The country music community was imagined as inextricably linked to national patriotism before September 11; but in the songs penned afterwards, the importance of reiterating that link became central to the message being both produced and consumed.…”

Untitled

“…This is because "# entails that God never supernaturally intervenes in the affairs of the universe that lie within its scope. 36 For, as observed above, since the natural output of "# at each step is the natural input for the next, "# yields an unbroken chain of natural events:…”

“…To reinforce his man-god status, he repeatedly performed "miracles" in front of giant crowds of people. The complete list is far too long to enumerate here, but it included healings, making objects appear from nowhere, miracles of "omniscience," 36 turning water into petrol, and raising people from the dead. Eyewitnesses to, and even problem for the existence of God.…”

“…2 (1984): 73-93, https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00136567. 36 For example, Sai Baba would catch people in lies where they say they are doing one thing, but he knows they are doing something else. videos of, his miracles abound.…”