"Knowing is an activity that all of us are involved in, all of the time," writes Dr. Esther Meek in her book Longing to Know, which turns 20 this year. "Usually knowing happens without our taking great thought to the process. But sometimes we stop and think about what we're doing. When we stop and think, what we were doing without much thought becomes murky indeed."
Think of learning to ride a bike. After a period of assisted practice, something clicks. A person who initially couldn't balance on a bike can suddenly ride off on their own. The external process of learning to ride a bike—guidance from a parent or a friend, training wheels, brief intervals of unassisted pedaling—are all easily identifiable. But the personal transformation—from not knowing how to ride a bike to knowing how—is more mysterious.
Building on the thought of Michael Polanyi, Dr. Meek challenges conceptions of knowing that have reigned since the Enlightenment, which don't reflect the way the biblical authors appear to portray how we acquire knowledge. It turns out that, for instance, doing what YHWH commands "so that you may know" looks a lot like learning to ride a bike.
Esther Lightcap Meek (BA Cedarville College; MA Western Kentucky University; PhD Temple University) is Professor of Philosophy emeritus at Geneva College, in Western Pennsylvania. She is also Senior Scholar with The Seattle School for Theology and Psychology, a Fujimura Institute Scholar, an Associate Fellow with the Kirby Laing Center for Public Theology, and a member of the Polanyi Society.
Show notes:
Show notes by Celina Durgin
Rituals Teach: Why We Can’t Ignore Leviticus (Mark Scarlata)
Update: Now Accepting Questions for Upcoming Q&A Episodes!
What Can Non-Jewish Clergy Learn from Jewish Studies? (Jeff Jacoby)
The Sexual Reformation: What Does the Bible Actually Say about Gender? (Aimee Byrd)
A Look Back at Rethinking ’Quiet Time’ (Jen Wilkin)
Beyond Bible Study: From Consumers to Participants (Caroline Smiley and Kyle Worley)
What Do Rituals ’Do,’ and What Makes a Ritual Sacred? (Ben Noonan)
The True Causes and Purposes of Religious Doubt (Matthew LaPine)
Love Enemies Better through Knowing the Biblical Land (Danielle Parish)
Still Trying to Find Yourself? Try Losing It First (Alan Noble)
The Church Needs African Hermeneutics (Liz Mburu)
The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America (Aaron Griffith)
Extreme Violence, Nahum, and Reconciliation in the Congo (Jacob Onyumbe Wenyi)
What Biblical Racial Reconciliation Actually Looks Like (Anthony Bradley)
The Torah Is Not a Law Book (Jerry Unterman)
No One Asks for Forgiveness in the Bible? (Joshua Berman)
African Americans Understood Paul‘s Words While Slave Owners Twisted Them (Lisa Bowens)
What Are Sermons for, and How Can They Be Improved? (Jonathan Pennington)
Three Grinches in a Pod: Complicating Christmas
Toward an Integrated Liturgy of Work and Worship (Matthew Kaemingk)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
강유원의 책담화冊談話
The Art of Manliness
Dear Hank & John
Conversations With Coleman
Alan Watts Being in the Way