FOUR WAYS OF KNOWING

Are you familiar with the "four ways of knowing" as set forth by John Vervaeke? I haven't done a lot of reading on this, but the concept seems incredibly important to me. Not just for faith matters, but for all sorts of thinking across all of life.

According to Bing's AI summary, the "four ways" are as follows: 

Propositional Knowing: This is the knowing we have in describing things or proclaiming facts, such as "the earth is round" or "I am human." It is the most emphasized form of knowing in modern culture and is often used to facilitate other forms of knowing. 

Procedural Knowing: This is knowing how to do something, such as learning a skill or procedure. It involves developing skills and procedures that yield abilities and skills. 

Perspectival Knowing: This is knowing via embodied perception, which involves understanding the world and one's place in it from a specific point of view. It is about awareness and insight into situations. 

Participatory Knowing: This is knowing how to act in the "agent-arena" environment, which involves knowing how to act in a way that is both effective and in harmony with the environment. 

Here's where I see this concept of the 4 types interacts with faith matters: 

It seems to me that the modern Church tends to elevate propositional knowing above all other types. In fact, little talk or effort is put into the other three. 

Learning proper doctrines - and then signing your name to them - is everything. And the Bible is seen as some sort of textbook on God. Preachers weave elaborate propositional truths out of single verses. 

And, yes, if you want to see this elevation of propositional knowing in full bloom, the best place to go is a YouTube apologist for Calvinism.

But I also see this with the "Free Grace" people. Remember, the core belief for them is that if a person simply "believes" in Jesus, he will be forever saved and heaven bound, no matter what path the rest of his life takes. And that belief is purely propositional - no action (participation) needed. 

In fact, some would argue that the only way to negate the effectiveness of simple faith is to complicate it with good deeds of any sort.

So here's what I don't get with these people. If they immerse themselves in the Bible (instead of cherry-picking verses for propositional truths), they should see a God who intends to experience life alongside His creatures from the beginning - and then longs for reconciliation once they go astray.

And His Scriptures are one long narrative about the differences between loving God and loving the world, between choosing righteousness and falling into disobedience, between the results of doing good and doing evil. 

In other words, it's one long lesson in humanity's participatory knowing of the God who created them.

And yet, the lynch pin of salvation for humanity is ultimately revealed to be pure, unadulterated propositional knowing, NO PARTICIPATORY KNOWLEDGE NEEDED.

Or even ALLOWED. 

Jesus did it all, they say.

True.

But Jesus did it all ... so you don't have to?