The latest To The Source article by Stan Guthrie is about knowledge, in particular, thoughts about Dallas Willard’s new book titled Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge. Willard, who teaches philosophy at the University of Southern California says that the moral confusion finds its source in one problem, “the trivialization of faith apart from knowledge and… the disastrous effects of a repositioning of faith in Jesus Christ… outside the category of knowledge.”
He goes on to say that in the context of modern life and thought that Christians are:
…urged to treat their central beliefs as something other than knowledge. Those beliefs are to be relegated to the categories of sincere opinion, emotion, blind commitment, or behavior traditional for their social group." When this happens, Willard says, Christians cannot influence society for the good. Only knowledge, as opposed to mere belief, commitment, or formal adherence, conveys the right and authority "to act, to direct action, to establish and supervise policy, and to teach.
Truth matters. Knowledge that I possess, if it is true at all, must be acted on. It is something that should impact my life, my attitudes, my decisions, anything that matters at all. This knowledge, this truth is the authority when I teach. It is the authority that I am under. To diminish it will only add to moral confusion.
Which is what we see in our society today.
