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SMED, JOHN F. (2016) God In the Conversation, Prayer Current, Vancouver.
Quote:
'When it comes to finding a religion people get confused. There are too many options. Religions seem to run in every direction. There is pantheism, New Age, the Dali Lama, agnosticism and atheism - as well as the major world religions. Christianity is divided between Catholics and Protestants - and a hundred varieties within the two. Without a road map, religions diverge and merge, ending up in an undifferentiated tangle.' (33).
The text provides a reasonable answer:
'I know I cannot think my way to God. Prayer connects me with God and put things together.' (35).
This followed up with:
'Do you think you might be interested in the prayer life of Jesus?' (35).
Prayer Current
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I realize that within Christianity there is also Orthodox and Non-denominational traditions, but the text is informative and like this website, not an exhaustive textbook.
According to the Biblical model, God can only be 'known personally' through revelation. Romans 1: 17 for example. This is contrasted with God being 'known about' which is also discussed in Romans 1.
Romans 1:17
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed [a]from faith to faith; as it is written, “[b]But the righteous man shall live by faith.”
Footnotes:
a. Romans 1:17 Or by
b. Romans 1:17 Or But he who is righteous by faith shall live
Righteousness and legal justification is provided by Jesus Christ's work of atonement and resurrection to those believers in Christ. It is revealed to those chosen (Romans and Ephesians), those that are believers, and not discovered through reason and speculation alone (although it is reasonable).
Religious speculation can provide some truth, making philosophy of religion a valid academic pursuit. But in at least some agreement with Kant from Critique of Pure Reason and related, in that regard, God can be reasoned as existing, intuitively and/or perhaps Kant would think God can be reasoned by deduction related to morality; although Kant was not a supporter of speculative religious doctrine, as he viewed it. Revelation from God in Scripture and resulting claims made within could perhaps be tied to Kantian concepts and intuition arising from empirical sensations. Kant (1781)(1787)(1929)(2006: 66).
I disagree with Kant in regard to the historical revelation. The infinite can make self reasonably known to the finite. In Scripture, God works through prophets, apostles and scribes. Therefore, Christ’s exclusivity claim of John 14: 6, can be tied to the idea above, as in whatever God reveals would be the exclusive truth and the rest speculation, some true, some false.
This view of Scripture along with prayer would be useful in working through various religious and philosophical worldviews in pursuit of a reasonable explanation and ultimately, the truth.
KANT, IMMANUEL (1781)(1787)(1998) Critique of Pure Reason, Translated and edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
KANT, IMMANUEL (1781)(1787)(1929)(2006) Critique of Pure Reason, Translated by Norman Kemp Smith, London, Macmillan.
KANT, IMMANUEL (1788)(1997) Critique of Practical Reason, Translated by Mary Gregor (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
KANT, IMMANUEL (1788)(1898)(2006) The Critique of Practical Reason, Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, London, Longmans, Green, and Co.
KANT, IMMANUEL (1791)(2001) ‘On The Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy’, in Religion and Rational Theology, Translated by George di Giovanni and Allen Wood, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
SMED, JOHN F. (2016) God In the Conversation, Prayer Current, Vancouver.
