Do you know of any resources to help me understand whether there is a difference between knowledge and faith, and how the two are intertwined?

Regards,

James

Ryan,

I think you’re correct in saying anti-theistic theories of knowledge separate God and the creation, though some will do the very opposite and identify the two—both fail to maintain a proper Creator-creature distinction and a revelatory epistemology. The point I was getting at with my sentence was that these theories also fail to account for the full-orbed nature of man himself, either reducing him merely to mind or to emotion or to will. This, in turn, relegates the act of faith to a particular faculty in man, rather than recognizing it as an act of his unified, whole person.

I’m basically echoing Bavinck here who saw how anti-theistic thought systems fail to maintain the relative unity and diversity in the creation (including man himself), which has its archetype in the self-contained ontological Trinity, in whom unity and diversity are equally absolute. You may want to check out Bavinck’s lectures, The Philosophy of Revelation, in which he critiques various applications of monism (which seeks a false unity at the expense of diversity). You can purchase the book here: http://www.heritagebooks.org/products/the-philosophy-of-revelation-bavinck-westminster-discount.html

Blessings!

I wonder if you would be willing to elaborate on this statement in your concluding paragraph: “These anti-theistic systems divide man in two and separate what belongs together.”? My mind was expecting that sentence to say something about the anti-theistic systems separating God from the world He created and sustains, but you referred to dividing man in two. I’m not quite grasping in what sense these anti-theistic systems divide man in two.

Regards,

Ryan