Marilynne Robinson is brilliant and her project in her new book Absence of Mind is noble:
What I wish to question are not the methods of science, but the methods of a kind of argument that claims the authority of science or highly specialized knowledge, that assumes a protective coloration that allows it to pass for science yet does not practice the self-discipline or self-criticism for which science is distinguished.
I’ll add that her book made for one of the most challenging reads I’ve had in a long time. In fact, I think I pulled a muscle in my brain trying to keep up with her. I was in over my head.
In my post on Inexhaustible Profundity I asked whether the Bible, like nature, “is so infused with mysteries that we could never explore it completely.” I believe that it is, but for the sake of this series of posts I’m going to assume that assertion without defending it. My next question then is, “How do we make progress in understanding the mysteries of the revelation of God in scripture?” And I’m going to explore as a point of departure Michael Polanyi’s discussion of what he calls “The Republic of Science” to see whether he offers us some helpful direction. I expect this to take several posts, but I also suspect that I will never get to them. But perhaps I’ll sow some seeds for reflection…. (more…)
I’ve read enough about Michael Polanyi to stir my interest in his writings, so when at Half-Price Books I stumbled across a collection of his essays called Knowing and Being, I snatched it up. It didn’t take many pages for me to figure out that this is heady stuff – as in “over my little heady.” But now and then I get glimpses of clarity – as if I’m walking in a dark forest at night, then step into a small clearing and the light of the moon makes it possible for me to make out the shapes of rocks and logs lying on the ground….
I’m reading in a section about the philosophy of science, and some of his ideas suggest to me analogies to the way we explore the scriptures. [Caveat: since I'm no scientist, no philosopher, and no theologian, everything I say in the rest of this post must be read with the deepest suspicion. But, after all, this is the Internet....] (more…)