Longing to Know

Who knew epistemology could be such fun?! Meek's down-to-earth approach and real life personal illustrations make for a delightful read. At the same time, her gracious but unapologetic applications to her Christian faith give the work an impressive weight.In the face of modern despair and post-modern whateverism, Dr. Meek couragously seeks to answer the troubling fundamental question: How do you know? Amazingly, her answer rings true. Many stubborn conundrums, ones I had long considered insoluble, fell like so many Berlin Walls before her gentle, evocative words. To call LTK an eye-opener would be a huge understatement. It has given me more "Oh! I see it!" moments, as Meek colorfully calls them, than any other book aside from the Bible itself.By offering a model for confident contact with the real, LTK has the potential to restore hope to those who have despaired for a lack of absolute certainty, humble those who thought they had absolute certainty, and aid understanding in every legitimate field of human endeavor I can think of. It even helped me understand my wife better! Boy, was that an "unexpected future manifestation"!Oh, uh, if, perchance, you don't consider yourself an ordinary person, despair not. The Polanyi/Meek model is helpful for us eccentrics, too. :-)

With Longing to Know, Esther Meek has opened the windows of the stuffy philosophy classroom. More appropriately, she has taken the study of knowledge outside the classroom and into the world of human experience. Meek's thesis is that knowing involves more than premises and propositions; it is primarily a complex activity in which humans attempt to make sense of the world in which they live. She calls this process the epistemic act, to emphasize the way that human beings continually interpret and integrate the information they collect with their senses.Above all, Meek, a Christian philosophy professor, wants to demonstrate that it is possible to know God. She does this by setting up the idea of knowledge as a natural human quest ("longing") for coherent patterns to guide everyday living. Her major assumption is that knowing God is basically the same as knowing anything else in the world. Throughout the book she uses two metaphors to illustrate her discussion of knowing. First, and most important, she claims that the dynamics of knowing God are very similar to those of knowing one's auto mechanic. There are clues, or bits of information, that lead us to certain beliefs about a person or state of affairs. When we begin to see beyond those individual clues to a coherent pattern--connecting the dots, so to speak--and when we begin to order our lives around that pattern of belief, we are engaged in the epistemic act of knowing.Meek's second primary metaphor--the Magic Eye--also serves to elucidate the complex process of knowing. The goal of the Magic Eye puzzle is to see a three-dimensional image which is not readily apparent to the casual observer. When the viewer follows the instructions, focusing her eyes through and beyond the design on the paper, the new image appears. The viewer sees a pattern of which she was previously unaware. In a similar way, Meek argues, human knowing involves a process of seeing beyond subsidiary details to focus on a larger coherent pattern. Meek's argument is compelling because at every step it is tied into the human experience. One of her most important contributions is in blurring the (imaginary) line between faith and reason. She shows us that a faith commitment is actually an integral part of being human; it is the only way that we can constantly engage with the world.Meek attends to postmodern concerns in her book, embracing the uncertainty that characterizes our quest for knowledge. In doing so, she actually strengthens her thesis, driving us closer to the world instead of isolating us from it. For Meek, living with uncertainty is a way of life--part of being human. However, in her model, instead of producing despair, uncertainty genders hope and opens the door to life-giving possibilities.As mentioned above, Meek's book depends heavily on the metaphors of the Magic Eye and the auto mechanic. Readers who have never experienced the "Aha!" moment of the Magic Eye might find themselves struggling to grasp this part of her argument. They will not be able to "engage" her conceptual world, to use her own term. I thought it curious that a book built around the idea of the Magic Eye would have no example of it! Maybe there is a question of copyright, or the fact that the activity might not work as well in a small black and white book format.A similar critique could be applied to Meek's use of Jeff, her auto mechanic. Readers who have never experienced this type of relationship will have to substitute some other type of long-term interaction with a friend or business acquaintance. In Brazil, for example, where many people do not even own a car, the metaphor would lose at least some of its force.Connections to evangelical theology. The first point of contact I see between Meek's book and evangelical theology is in the nature of Scripture. We could compare the words of Scripture to the subsidiary clues of the Magic Eye puzzle. Knowing God through his word is like the act of experiencing the three-dimensional image; it is focusing through the words themselves to the coherent pattern beyond. From Meek's perspective, seeing God in Scripture--what she calls an "act of integration"--is not an irrational process, but "transrational" (77). The Spirit helps us to see the words and propositions of Scripture in a new light, transforming our reason into something greater than itself, and leading us to fresh discoveries about ourselves and God. This view moves our primary focus from the words of Scripture themselves (and, in my estimation, from the question of their inerrancy, or certainty) to the larger coherent pattern of God's presence in the Word and the world.Applying Meek's argument further, we could say that some people do not see God in Scripture, because they are not following the directions contained therein. They are not embodying the story, making it their own, "living the truth," as she says. Sometimes they are unable to see the clues in Scripture (their vision is truncated by sin; someone needs to guide them), other times they are unwilling to do so (they will not commit to the struggle of knowing, or the obstinate nature of belief hinders their vision).Longing to Know also has direct application to Christian worship. Meek says that "worship is the epistemic act of making sense of the whole of our lives" (73). Since the epistemic act is a transrational process, involving more than verbal clues and assertions, then worship is something that we do with our bodies as a whole. This should not necessarily diminish the importance of the traditional sermon time during corporate worship (which normally involves only two of our five senses), but should challenge us to explore the possibility of more interactive ways to transmit and "live in" the truth of God's word.

This is an excellent resource for those who think they know too much. We are given Scripture, revelation from above, in order that we might truly know God and ourselves. However, the same Scripture that gives to us "true truth" or true knowledge is the same Scripture that teaches us humility with regard to what we know. Why? Because we cannot fully know all things because our minds are tainted by sin. We rightfully interpret the world and ourselves when we look through the lens of Scripture, but we do not consistently interpret God, ourselves, or our world through the lens of Scripture. Every sin that we commit, every time we doubt or are skeptical, this is a misinterpretation of reality. This book by a Polanyi scholar is helpful in addressing the 20th century church's, particularly the evangelical's temptation toward accepting a modern worldview, and interpreting God, the world and ourselves through this modern lens. It is ironic that many Christians today would argue adamantly against secular humanism and modernity in its self-centered, autonomous, rational manifestations, but then they would gladly welcome and receive the self-centered, autonomous, and rational methodology of knowing that was born in the Enlightment by self-centered, autonomous, and rational individuals. This book if read carefully will remind us that all knowledge is ultimately "covenantal knowledge". Who God is, who we are, what world we live in is all revealed in Scripture so that we might understand reality from God's perspective and submit our knowledge and understand to his- - humbly. All of us interpret the world according to what we know, from whom we have learned it, and through the lens of our own biases and presuppositions. In order to rightly interpret God, ourselves and the world around us faithfully and accurately, we must first be aware of this, then humbly seek to know through the Scriptures God has given to us, in the Church Jesus is building for us, and remind ourselves of the authorities and the loved ones who have taught us and continue to teach us. If you are struggling with your knowledge of God, yourself, and the world, and if you are completely honest enough to humbly admit it, then read the Book of Ecclesiastes first, then read Esther Lightcap Meek's book on "Longing to Know"! Many Christians today want absolute knowledge about God. What is frightening about this mindset is that it was born from a secular, autonomous, humanist way of thinking. It is not merely inquisitive, but rabidly proud. For many Christians I have known have left the Church and their faith because they thought that to question was a sin and therefore something was wrong with their faith. Those who want absolute "proof" and "evidence" should check to see where their faith is directed. At God in Christ by faith? Or in their ability to prove God in Christ by reason? Christians need to repent of their pride in wanting too much evidence, and be confident in the Scriptures that God has given to us. As Jesus said himself, they have Moses and the prophets listen to them...for even if one rises from the dead they will not believe." What this means is that even if we have all the evidence in the world that demands a verdict, if we don't humble ourselves before Jesus and His Special Revelation, we will not believe and paradoxically we will not truly know. Humility by God's grace in the Scriptures is the way toward true knowing, any other way is pride that goes before the fall. You will be challenged in this book helpful and clear philosophical book. But even the strongest, most mature Christians doubt sometimes and find themselves being skeptical. Allow this book to remind you of what knowledge is all about. Allow this book to humble you and turn you toward the living God in Christ. Allow this book to help you engage those who are struggling with their knowledge of God, themselves and their world. Don't Question Everything, but Question how we question everything!

Excellent. Slow start, but very, very valuable.

If you want to know more, just read Michael Polanyi, or start with him instead. This book is mostly Polanyi plus explicitly Christian language voiced in an easy to understand vocabulary. I appreciate what Esther Meek has done, and I would encourage people to wrestle with the 'hard' stuff too. If this book interested you, keep going. The water is fine. Maybe read some Polanyi and then read some of Dr. Meek's new books and compare them.