Esther Lightcap Meek Archives

Loving to Know

Loving to Know, Esther Lightcap Meek. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9781608999286) 2011.

Summary: A proposal for covenant epistemology, bridging the subject-object divide with the idea that knowing is a personal, loving act.

Esther Lightcap Meek believes we are in desperate need of “epistemological therapy.” Since Descartes, knowledge has been focused on objective facts and a sharp disjunct exists between the knowing subject and the thing known. It leads to all kinds of binaries: facts versus beliefs, science versus imagination and art, the public versus the private to name a few. More recently, the post-modern turn has challenged all this, proposing that our “objective” knowledge is socially constructed. Hence, truth is relative to the observer. We can all have our own truths. This explains the epistemic crisis of our age, one that has been called “post-truth.”

Esther Lightcap Meek offers an alternative epistemology which she frames for us in Loving to Know. The title offers a clue. Drawing foundationally on Michael Polanyi, she argues that true knowing is a personal loving act in relation to what is being known. She calls this “covenant epistemology,” signifying a committed personal relationship, an “interpersoned” character between knower and the known in the knowing.

Part One of her book explains why we need epistemological therapy and lays out the basic contours of her proposal, as discussed above. Most of the remainder of the book consists of “conversations” with thinkers who were influential for Meek. Essentially, she retraces her process in developing covenant epistemology.

Then Part Two consists of her interaction with Michael Polanyi and James Loader. Polanyi contributes the idea of knowing as subsidiary focal integration. We move between something focused upon and intuitive clues as to its nature, and knowing is the integration of the two, a transformative moment. Her conversation with James Loader further unpacks the transformative aspect.

But where does the covenantal aspect arise? Part three develops this in conversation with John Frame and Mike Williams. Frame sees human knowing as stewardship in response to God’s disclosed relationship of covenant relationship as sovereign Creator and Lord. Our knowing imitates God’s covenant relationship with the created order in understanding, preserving and developing that world. Williams likens covenant relationship to our marriage covenant, a pledge of care for that which we are knowing. We commit to love in order to know.

So, this all sounds very personal rather than the detached knowing that characterizes our “science.” Rather than back off this idea, Meek doubles down in part four. She draws on John MacMurray to support the interpersonal character of human knowing. Martin Buber’s shift from I-It” to “I-Thou” relationships further supports the interpersonal encounter in knowing. Meek includes one of several “Texture” sidebars at this point to discuss the nature of friendship as “knowing with” another. I thought this worth the price of admission! Following this, James Loader talks about knowing before the Holy, that all of our knowing is before, and part of, knowing God. In addition, there are chapters in this part on healthy interpersonhood, knowing as dance (Colin Gunton on perichoresis), and on reality as gift.

Finally, in part five, Meek draws all the threads of this 500 page work together in “Contours of Covenant Epistemology.” She then addresses how we might respond to all this in “inviting the real.” She describes this as an “etiquette” of knowing and offers specific practices for the well-mannered knower. For example, under comportment she discusses our pledge or covenant, trust, obedience, humility, patience, saying “you” and listening. She concludes by discussing “knowing for shalom,” her hope that covenant epistemology will indeed be transformative for her readers.

I believe Meek offers an effective epistemological therapy if we will receive it. For Meek, all knowing is an interpersonal loving act in the presence of our loving Creator and Lord. To love that which we seek to know is to treat it with personal care, allowing the beloved to disclose itself rather than imposing our understanding upon it. Covenantal knowing means a “knowing with” both the ultimate source of all knowledge but also with other knowers. All this undercuts the privatized assertion of “my truth.” Such knowing, as was the case with Polanyi, reconciles exacting processes and creative imagination, science and art. Above all, this proposal invites epistemological humility as we recognize that all our knowing is a gift from a good Creator.

A History of Western Philosophy and Theology, John Frame. Phillipsburg, NJ: Puritan and Reformed Publishing Company, 2015

Summary: This is a survey and critique of the major philosophers and theologians of the West beginning with the Greek philosophers and early church fathers up to the present day, written from a reformed perspective.

Yes, this really is what you think it is, a one volume survey of Western philosophy and theology! It is a massive volume, coming in at over 800 pages, and yet to distill the material Frame covers even to this length is a not insignificant undertaking.

Here’s what you will find in this book if you decide to dig in. Frame begins with a discussion of philosophy and the Bible and reveals his own approach at the outset. Frame was deeply influenced by his association with Cornelius Van Til, his teacher at Westminster Theological Seminary, and writes as a presuppositionalist. In brief, he begins with the belief in a God who reveals God’s self, as basic to all else and a commitment to the authority of that revelation as found in the Bible. He contrasts this with philosophy, which he understands as a human endeavor of autonomous reason. This is not without worth but in his view exists in a rational-irrational tension that can only be resolved by divine revelation and he traces this idea throughout his survey. In the following twelve chapters he surveys the major philosophers and theologians beginning with Greek philosophy, early Christian thought, medieval philosophy, early modern thought, theology in the Enlightenment, Kant and his successors, nineteenth century theology, Nietzsche, pragmatism, phenomenology and existentialism, twentieth century liberal theology and language philosophy, and recent Christian philosophy.

His format is to outline the thought of the theologian or philosopher in question, situating them in the context of ideas of their time. Then, more briefly he gives a critique. Fundamentally, he will evaluate on the basis of the degree to which the philosopher or theologian in question roots his ideas in revelation versus autonomous reason. Yet I did not find this repetitive but nuanced to the specific thought of the person in question. In most chapters, he will cover the thought of several major thinkers, and then more briefly touch on others. Each chapter concludes with a glossary of terms, a bibliography for further study that includes print, online, and audio materials (the latter consisting of lectures by Frame available at iTunes).

In addition to this survey, the volume includes twenty appendices, consisting of a number scholarly articles and reviews Frame has written on subjects related to the book. I found a number of these quite illuminating and good resources for apologetic (Christian defense of the faith) discussions including essays on the ontological argument, self-refuting statements, and on God and biblical language. Of personal interest to me was his essay on certainty and his discussion of the work of Esther Lightcap Meek, an epistemologist teaching at Geneva College. She asserts that while we cannot hope for certainty, we can attain to a proper confidence in knowing. Frame would argue that if one presupposes revelation, then there are some things pertaining to God’s nature, our condition and salvation that we may know with certainty. This challenged my own thinking (I have tended toward Meek’s ideas) and actually is something I want to pursue further. One also glimpses some of the scholarly “battles” he has engaged in such as his dialogue with Gordon Clark.

This touches on what I thought was the value of Frame’s work. In addition to surveying the sweep of Western philosophical and theological thought, his discussions served to whet the appetite for pursuing some of these in further depth. I would not have know, for example, of Meek’s books (Longing to Know, Loving to Know are two of these). Along the way, I also found myself longing to read Anselm, to re-read Pascal, to dig into the common sense philosophy of Thomas Reid. Frame even made me curious to explore some Van Til, who I’ve never read. Frame has a teacher’s ability to unravel complex ideas in a highly readable form.

I fully suspect that a number who do not share Frame’s perspective will take issue with his judgments on philosophers and theologians. He is less charitable, for example, to Barth, than many contemporary writers, although not uncharitable in his judgments of any. One has to understand the deep passion for truth as he understands it that under girds Frame’s writing. And certainly, any specialist would probably take issue with his treatment of this or that figure. Yet that is always the challenge of undertaking a work like this.

For those sympathetic with a reformed, presuppositionalist perspective, this will provide a thoroughly engaging course on Western thought that will deeply inform one’s own intellectual life. For pastors, this is useful for understanding various currents of thought through history. For those working in university ministries or engaged in discussions at the philosophical level, this is an especially useful reference.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”