Epistemology: The Pit Analogy

The Pit Analogy is an image I use to teach how Christianity views how we can “know” God and grow closer in relationship with Him. I ask my students if they have ever been stuck in a pit where the walls were too steep to climb out and it was too deep to see what was going on the surface. My students actually think I expect to have some real responses to this question! My dead-pan demeanor often leaves my sarcasm flat! Too bad; if they got my sense of humor, the next joke about “lotion in the basket” would really have them rolling on the floor! Anyway, I ask them to imagine being stuck in a pit that is too deep to climb out of by themselves. They need assistance from the surface. They are too far from the surface to know anything that is happening outside the Pit. The lesson is simple; if we assume there to be transcendent Truths (outside of the pit) and material Truths (inside the pit) we, as humans, limited by time and space, can only really “know” the material Truth inside the Pit. The only way for us in the Pit to “know” anything outside of the Pit is for someone to already be above ground and to tell us what is happening or to help us get out of the Pit. This is Revelation and Salvation, but I get ahead of myself. My students are usually confused as to why I am talking about this. Every day my classes review what we have studied the previous day or two. I want my students to keep everything in perspective. We are studying knowledge and how we can know things. This lesson is about how we, as material human being, know anything. If we are talking about knowing God and knowing our Authentic Self, both transcendent Truths, then we need to talk about knowledge, itself.

            Epistemology is the study of knowledge and how we can know anything. Normally, we think of knowledge as that stuff which we can prove to be True based on observation, study, and prediction. We “know” grass is green and the sky is blue (all things being equal) because we have studied the world around us; we have observed things to be consistently True; and we can predict that tomorrow the grass will still be green and the sky will be blue. Of course, further study, observation, and prediction tells us that certain circumstances can change the color of grass and the sky. This is all the same kind of knowledge. Episteme is a knowledge based on observation. It is the kind of knowledge that is understandable by the human intellect. Anything that can be known by the human senses or even the contemplation of what we observe with our senses is episteme. Inside the Pit, we can say that episteme is anything that we can know about the hole that is our current home. Since whatever is outside of the Pit cannot be studied, observed, or predicted by the people inside the Pit, that knowledge is transcendent or outside of time and space. This is an easy concept for high school students to grasp. Essentially, anything you can understand with reason and logic is episteme. There is no real mystery to it.

Phronesis is the Greek term for knowledge that is more transcendent in nature and cannot be studied, observed, or predicted in the same way that episteme can. I use the Pit analogy to describe this. While episteme is knowledge based on what we can actually see and grab a hold of inside the Pit, phronesis is knowledge that is “thrown down” to us from outside the Pit. I call this image “ropes”. I imagine myself sitting in the Pit and it is dark and wet cold. I have searched everywhere in the Pit for anything that I can use to make my situation better or even to get out of the Pit. But as I am sitting there in my ridiculous ignorance, suddenly the end of a rope lands next to me. I was so ignorant I never even thought to look up and to consider there was even an outside of the Pit. I am so deep in this Pit I cannot even see a dot of light at the top. But now, there is this rope that ends with me. I have no idea where the rope comes from, not yet, but just as suddenly as the rope lands next to me, a package slides down the rope and lands next to me. I fiddle around in the darkness and manage to open the package and inside the package if feel something. After messing around for what seems like forever (remember, I am basically an idiot) my hand hits against something and all of a sudden a beam of light shines from the device that was in the package, and I can see more clearly than I ever have before. I can see the walls and the floor of the Pit. I can see my own dirtiness. I can see that there does not seem to be an end to the height of the Pit. I notice the rope and how it disappears into the height of the Pit. Where did this rope come from? Why did this package get thrown down to me? What am I supposed to do now? Well, I am already doing what I am supposed to do; I am contemplating this new “knowledge” that has been given to me. I am trying to figure out where the rope comes from and why this package was sent to me. The conclusion I come to, even though I do not understand it, is that the rope starts, at least, somewhere far above me and closer to the surface than me. There must be someone farther up in the Pit or maybe even outside of the Pit that knows I am in dark and cares enough to send me this gift. The rope connects me to that other person and therefore, we have some sort of relationship. As long as I keep that rope in my hand I am, in some way, encountering that person who is higher than I am. I explain this to my students in terms of episteme and phronesis: episteme is what I can observe, study, and predict. What I “see” or sense in the Pit is episteme. What I think and contemplate is episteme. What I conclude or predict about how the rope must have a source is episteme. These are all concepts that come from the human intellect. But phronesis is knowledge of exactly what it is that is outside the Pit. It is mysterious knowledge, beyond even human imagination. Phronesis is ungraspable knowledge, but we can, by episteme, know that it exists, just like I can use simple reason and logic to know that there is something at the other end of the rope. There are more things that I can know about that something, but we will get to that in a bit. My students do not like phronesis. It hurts their sense of control over knowledge, which is what they have been trained to do as students. Too bad.

Phronesis is knowledge of something more transcendent gained through encounter with the transcendent. In contrast to episteme, phronesis does not rely on the human mind to study, observe, or predict, although we can use episteme to conclude there to be something that can be known only through phronesis. Because it is rooted in Truth beyond human experience or time and space, phronesis can only be experienced or known by humans if one who is higher in the Pit or, as we will derive later, one who is “outside” the Pit, chooses to help one inside the pit to know more. This concept often takes time for students to grasp. Essentially, they have to reach a point where they realize it is knowledge beyond their ability to understand. To begin to understand this concept of phronesis requires acquiescence, and, in the modern culture of infinite self-worth, acquiescence takes a long time.

(Waking up from a nap.)

Relationship with God: Universal Call to Holiness

I teach my students about the Universal Vocation to Holiness. Usually, when people think of Holiness, they imagine some long-skirted woman sitting silently and properly in a church pew (or kneeling in prayer), usually alone with God, with eyes shut tightly, and a smile as if to communicate she is having some mystical conversation with God, adoring Him in bliss. I have seen those people and maybe they are experiencing some form of Peace and that is good, I suppose. But I think Holiness is more. Holiness is living out the image and likeness in which we are made. It is Loving and being Loved the same way the Trinity Loves and is Loved. Holiness necessitates self-giving Love and if one is to be self-giving, then there must be another person or group of persons to give that Love to. Holiness is Loving and being Loved within the context of community. Holiness is the Trinity, and if we are made in the image and likeness of God, the Trinity, then to be who we are made to be, we, too, must be in Community and humility, Agape. Sacramentally, if we look at the material Truths we discover in anthropological studies, maybe we discover community and humility to be major material themes of the continuing development of the human person.

            “God Loves me”, Monsignor Buchignani teaches. If we know this then all else follows. When we talk about what it means to be who God wants us to be and the source of transcendent happiness then “God Loves me” is vital. But to reach further into the essence of God, let’s start with making the claim that we are made in the image and likeness of God and that image and likeness resembles a community of self-giving Love. If we want to be our most Authentic Selves, that is the model we should live out. Hopefully my students have a good understanding right now of what it means to think in terms of Sacramentality and Christian Anthropology. Of course, if the goal is “to know” the Authentic Self, then we need to also discuss what it means “to know” and how we can “know” anything, especially if that “anything” is transcendent. We learn some more buzz words like “epistemology”, “episteme”, and “phronesis”.

(Not exactly the kind of Love we are working for, but it is a start).

Relationship with God: Primordial Fundamental of Faith

            This first section of this blog (maybe a book) talks about Christian Anthropology, that is, a theological understanding who we are as human beings. What is our origin? What is our destination? What is our purpose? Regular anthropology is a material study of who we are. It involves the scientific study of where we come from historically and geographically. Anthropology helps us to understand why we are the way we are in terms of our material Truth. For example, material Truths about humanity like race, language, culture, etc… can be analyzed through the scientific study of the history of the human person. Theological Anthropology considers all the material Truths of who we are as the human race and seeks to understand these Truths within the context of a transcendent Creator. Because it looks at the material Truth of the human person as it relates to transcendent Truth, Theological Anthropology uses a Sacramental Vision to view reality. It is not limited to just material observations or theological reflections; it uses both to understand who the Authentic Self may be. Theological Anthropology seeks to understand who we are as a human race by first seeking to understand the image and likeness in which we are created. Of course, the problem is we cannot fully understand that which is transcendent. So, the study of who we are as a human race in terms of regular anthropology can actually help us to begin to understand the image and likeness of the Creator. This is the really the first step I take with students in understanding Sacramentality, and, I admit, it is a bit difficult. But I am famous in the classroom for “front-loading” my students. I give them some of the more difficult and complex topics first and I make sure we go relatively slowly so as not to lose anyone, but at the end of the lesson, if they can differentiate between Theological and regular Anthropology, they will be more than prepared for the rest of the class.

            Monsignor. Buchignani’s First Fundamental of Faith looks at the Creator and who the Creator is, first, and actually ignores humanity. It is an important concept because it focuses on the most important Truth inside and outside of the universe: God. Why is this important for us? Well, if we can begin to understand some of the Truths of who God is and the nature of God, then we can begin to understand the nature of humanity whom God creates in His image and likeness. If we know God, we know ourselves.

            I might actually say that Monsignor’s First Fundamental of Faith is not completely accurate. There is a deeper Fundamental of Faith. Maybe we can call it the Primordial Fundamental of Faith. To understand how we fit into God’s plan, we consider the concept of the First Fundamental of Faith. But if we focus on God, God’s self, we could further say that the “Primordial Fundamental of Faith” is “God Loves God.” I am not all academics with my students! Sometimes I share personal stories. Everyone knows that story-telling is, perhaps, the most effective way to teach a lesson. Pedagogically speaking, it allows students to scaffold or to create a familiar image to which they can attach newer ideas. Of course, if you look at storytelling for what it is, analogous reasoning, you will also see how nicely the method of storytelling fits in with the topic of Sacramentality. I tell my students a story about the Primordial Fundamental of Faith. My friend Jennie convinced me once to go to her church for a talk on a warm Wednesday night when I lived in Atlanta. As a Catholic I am most accustomed to the traditions and the austere nature of worship. Jennie’s church was a rock concert in comparison! The lights and the music was energizing and exciting. The comfortable chairs made the experience more inviting, I suppose, but what I remember most about the experience was the talk. Long story short, the young pastor gave a lesson with a simple thesis: God must Love God’s self more than anything else; if God Loved us more than Himself, then we should worship ourselves. Makes sense to me. There are some technical theological problems with this thesis regarding the nature of who we are as human beings made in His image and likeness, but essentially the lesson is clear: we need to focus on Loving God so we can grow closer to Him. (As we grow in relationship with God, we actually grow in knowledge of who we are as human beings). Back to the Primordial Fundamental of Faith; God Loves God. In terms of Trinitarian Theology and referring to the Capadocians and, later, Augustine, before and beyond Creation, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit form the essence of God as Community and Self-giving Love. That is the nature of the Trinity; that is the nature of God: Community and Self-giving Love. Augustine would describe the Trinity as the Lover, the Beloved and the Love between. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit, respectively. Before humanity, the Primordial Fundamental of Faith is the perfect Agapic Relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This concept is absolutely essential later in this blog (book) as we discuss what we need to do in order to be our Authentic Selves. If we are made in the image and likeness of God and if God is Community (Trinity) and Love (Agapic, self-giving Love), then as we grow to “understand” God as such, then we grow to understand what it means to be fully human.  I am pleasantly surprised every year, although if it happens every year I shouldn’t be surprised, at how many of my students know the term Agape. I don’t always, but sometimes class conversation moves us to discuss agape, philas, eros, storge… and other vocabulary the ancient Greeks used for “Love”. Essentially, what is important here is the concept that the Love God has for God’s self is transcendent. Agape. It cannot be fully defined, as my students gather from its transcendent nature, but I do suggest to them that we can describe some attributes of Agape, namely, that it is necessarily self-giving or humble and it requires at least one other person to be both the Lover and/or the Beloved. I tell my students, “One cannot Love (Agape) in a vacuum.” I give them a few minutes to write that chestnut of wisdom in their notebooks.

(High Chisos, West Rim Trail. I am writing about how big God is something like that)

Relationship with God: First Fundamental of Faith

Monsignior Peter Buchignani, a former pastor of mine in Memphis, Tennessee, would start his RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) classes with a simple question: “What is the First Fundamental of Faith?” RCIA at St. Francis was more like an open forum of Catholic exploration. There were definitely people there who were interested in converting to Catholicism and often their sponsors and family would join them. But the class was also open to anyone in the parish or in the community who just wanted to know more about Catholic practice and belief. Wednesday evening would start with food and socializing; all the food was brought by people in the class and would range from chips and salsa to homemade casseroles and cakes and pies, and, occasionally, I would bring a few Little Caesar’s Pizzas. On a teacher’s budget and as a single man, my budget was limited; give me a break.

            It was the perfect question to ask a class of people who either had no background in theology or who had some other Christian background. Come to think of it, even if no one has any concept of God, this is the perfect question. “What is the First Fundamental of Faith?” This might be a term that Msgr. Buchignani made up; I certainly have not seen it used in any “formal” theology. The responses came slowly at first; no one wants to be wrong. “Believe in God”, someone would say after raising their hand and making eye contact with Monsignor. “That is a great answer!” he would respond. “But no”. It was hard to pick up on his sense of humor, a mixture of stern and serious sarcasm and mockery. “Repent for your sins!” another person would respond. “That is the best response I have ever heard,” he would say, “but that is wrong too.” His wry smile would communicate his Love and care for everyone there despite the caustic rejection of any answer. “Come on, folks…the First Fundamental of Faith? Anyone? Don’t share if you have taken this class before!” Grace, a student I was sponsoring into the Church, rose her hand meekly and when Monsignor called on her she said, “God Loves me.” He Looked at her intently, smiled, and said, “In all my years of teaching this, no one has ever gotten that question right! ‘God Loves me’ is the First Fundamental of Faith!” I was so proud of her and I still am, even though I found out later that Daniel, her then-boyfriend and now-husband (whom I had sponsored through RCIA the previous year) had told her the answer!

            “God Loves me.” Monsignor. Buchignani made it simple. Faith, on the most basic level, is not actually about us. Theologically, if we are talking about the transcendent, then the focus of belief cannot be the one who believes, but rather, it must be that which one directs their belief.  To borrow the image, if the believer is the river and the object of belief is the source, the river cannot rise above the source. To say “God Loves me” reveals the nature of God as Lover, to borrow another image from St. Augustine, regardless of the one whom He Loves. That is, the First Fundamental of Faith does not say “God Loves me because I did this or that”; it simply says “God Loves.” Monsignor is really invoking the words of St. John: “God is Love.” This really is the most important thing that one needs to know in Christianity. Christianity is less about who we think we are and more about who God is.

(Me and a few close friends in Christ.)

Relationship with God: Introduction

Christianity is not a religion about God; it is a relationship with God. I start all my semesters off with this idea. Too often we think of Christianity like it is a philosophy or a prescription for how to be a good person or how to get to Heaven, and while those may be the result of Christianity, they are not the essence of the Christian experience. Christianity can not be thought of, simply, as a list of particular action or words, although, as I will discuss late in this book, these actions and words are essential as they point us to the greater purpose of Christianity. Christianity is not a religion or a study of God; Christianity is a relationship, an encounter, with God. When we think of Christianity as a subject, something to be mastered or perfected, then the focus of Christianity becomes the one who masters or perfects the actions and the words prescribed by Christianity. Instead, we need to think of Christianity more in terms of an encounter with a Truth greater than us. Christianity is a relationship, or rather, the development of a relationship with God who should be the focus of our actions and words.

To what end? What is, what is the purpose of Christianity? When we enter into a relationship, whether it is a relationship with a person or an idea or a place, assuming we enter into that relationship properly oriented, and I will explain that later, we open ourselves up to the possibility of discovering  more about who we are. That is, it is within the context of relationship that we discover our authentic self. Now, if we think in terms of a relationship with God, then we are talking about a relationship with one who knows us perfectly and, if we are properly oriented, we can discover more perfectly who we are. One of the important threads that will carry through this book is the concept that we are made in the image and likeness of God. In fact, in Scripture, the first reference God makes regarding humans is in Genesis 1:26. God says, “Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness.” The fact that this is the first thing God says about humanity reveals this to be a fundamental Truth to who we are. Further, if we are in a relationship with the one who created us, then  as we grow to know God, we, in fact, grow to know ourselves. Christianity, then, is not so much about the actions and words as their own end; those actions and words serve to help us to develop a relationship with God whereby we discover our Authentic Self.

But what is so great about discovering our Authentic Self? Modern sentiments of “self” are described as fluid or subjective. The self is defined in terms of autonomous individualism. But if the self is defined by that which is created and if the self is fluid and prone to change, then there is no objective or transcendent self. We are only material. Christianity presupposes (and most humans intuitively believe) that the Authentic Self is transcendent and beyond simple material definition. Therefore, as I will discuss in the first chapter, in order to know that which is beyond our capacity to understand we must be in relationship with one who is beyond that same capacity to understand. In the material sense, people seek to be their Authentic Self, no matter how that is defined, because it is the ultimate source of happiness. Modern ideology tells us that to be happy we have to be free to be ourselves, however that is defined. Christian anthropology agrees with this concept. One is happiest when they are who they are made to be. However, modern ideology also seems to limit that sense of Authentic Self to that which is materially True about us. The modern Authentic Self is limited to that which we can perceive. As one does live out their material Authentic Self, they do experience happiness, although that happiness seems to be fleeting as the material Authentic Self is changing perpetually as one encounters the world and others in more complex ways. That sort of happiness, then, is only temporary. Christianity points us to a happiness that is not fleeting. Christianity points us to a relationship with the Transcendent God in whose image and likeness we are made and in that relationship we begin to discover the transcendent nature of who our authentic self is. The result of this knowledge of our transcendent Authentic Self is what St. Thomas Aquinas calls Beatific Vision, or a sense of transcendent happiness.

               The temptation in Christianity is to abandon the material Truth that surrounds us and that we can perceive in this world. But the first question I would ask is “Why would God create the world if it was not important in some way?” The material Truth that we experience always in this earthly life must have a purpose beyond just itself. The concept of material Truth pointing us to transcendent Truth of who we are is Sacramentality. In this blog I will explore the nature of who we are, the role of the material world and other people in knowing the authentic self, the reasons why knowing the Authentic Self is so difficult, and various ways Christianity assists us in knowing our Authentic Self.

We are called to be happy. We are made to be happy. But it is a happiness beyond our own expectation and our own ability to provide. We must start with a relationship with One who can provide.

Henri and Summit Lake at Mt. Evans

Teaching Theology: Sacramentality

Christianity is not a religion about God; it is a relationship with God. This is basically how I start all my classes. My students come to know this little catch phrase of mine. If they don't, they are likely to lose a few points on every test they take; it's a customary question! But this is the general lens or hermeneutic I use in my classes to communicate the overall purpose of Christianity. For adolescents, and really for most people, the desire for relationship is one of those cardinal forces in life; we have a hard time ignoring it. So, why not use this common desire for relationship to frame the study of Catholic theology? God is, after all, relationship within the Holy Trinity, and we are, after all, created in the image and likeness of that Trinity.

This blog is really a record of a class I teach centered on Sacramentality. Hopefully this blog will serve to show the general concept of Sacramentality... how we can encounter God in all things, as St. Ignatius of Loyola teaches. 

The general structure of this blog, over however long it will take to unfold, includes sections on Christian Anthropology, the Authentic Self, the Other and Verbum, identifying what prevents us from knowing Our Authentic Self, and what helps us to know our Authentic Self. I welcome any questions or comments. Ultimately, like I tell my students, you can read this blog in one of two ways: you can either learn something about Christianity that might help you understand why they do things the way they do, or you can learn something about yourself and maybe deepen in your own relationship with God. 

I only pray for God's guidance.

(I can't help but share pictures of this dog. Henri is named after Henri Nouwen. My wife and I fell in Love while reading Life of the Beloved together. You can probably expect many pictures of Henri in this blog.)