Pastoral Epistemology

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil. 4:8-9)

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At the end of his letter, Paul uses this virtue list as a pastoral tool to encourage this church toward maturity and greater unity in God. I return to these words periodically, because I find these verses to be particularly helpful for meditating on God, on the way of Jesus, and on other parts of Scripture. Lately, the very first phrase has been pressing on my mind: “Whatever is true.”

I don’t think I will surprise anyone when I talk about the epistemic crisis I am bumping up against in my daily interactions. I have written before that I often make pastoral visits to people with a full range of strong views. The adage is to avoid talking about religion or politics. However, that warning seems to be expanding as increasingly more topics become potentially incendiary in nature. At the center of the heat are questions revolving around truth. What is true here? Who’s telling the truth? What information is trustworthy? Of course, these questions are often expressed with a little more intensity in the form of accusations and strong claims. I am confident that you are dealing with similar situations in your own settings. So what are we to do?

One solution is to provide a response to each case as it presents itself. However, the pace of the topics is exhausting considering the growing momentum and abundance of controversies, conspiracy theories, misinformation, accumulating data, and overall distrust. I don’t necessarily have to name the topics but, for the sake of avoiding an unhelpfully vague reflection, we can list pressing concerns like pandemic restrictions, vaccinations (efficacy, risks, and mandates), school curriculums (Critical Race Theory), political controversies, identity politics, racism and social policy, the telling of history, and more. We absolutely should consider these topics specifically and thoughtfully. However, for this post, I want to address a concern that I believe underlies each of these. I’m talking about an epistemic crisis.

I’m used to hearing epistemology used as a joke about jargon and as one of those big theology words we struggled with in seminary. The joke continues as we sheepishly apologize for using it (if we do). However, with all the conversations about truth, opinions versus justified beliefs, validity of information, conflicting operative narratives, and general questions about what we know, epistemology seems suddenly and surprisingly relevant. Do you agree? Not only is what we know under question, but how we know it is under fire as well. Even fields that have long enjoyed a place of privilege, like the hard sciences, are being challenged. Woven through all of it is the sentiment that credibility and honesty have eroded at every turn. These issues seem to run deeper than merely needing to come to agreement on some topics.

I don’t want to add more frantic activity to the mix, and I certainly do not intend to unnecessarily raise anxiety levels with one more call for alarm. However, I do believe that highlighting the crisis also reveals some good news. As leaders in various contexts, we know that a crisis is 1) a temporary condition and 2) a point of opportunity. When I was working with my design team during my doctoral thesis, I noticed that they were wonderful at discussing specific examples but struggled somewhat with a balcony approach to reflection. [1] I suspect they are not alone here. Examining processes, frameworks, motivations, and methods is a skill that requires practice and training. Similarly, reflecting theologically on something as basic yet all-encompassing as knowledge is not always natural. Thankfully, I believe there is a group of people who are perfectly positioned to help navigate these foggy waters: theologically trained ministers and leaders.

My encouragement to you is that your theological training provides a unique, needed, and well-suited tool for equipping your faith community to handle the current questions in our society. We need faith communities who are learning theological reflection and who are being equipped to take a balcony approach to the way we make sense of knowledge. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to consider the ways epistemology and theological reflection can function as pastoral activities. My prayer is that we take Paul’s list in Philippians as motivation to think carefully about these things as we grow into the likeness of the God of peace. “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure …”

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[1] This mental exercise involves picturing yourself standing on a balcony and looking at a system or situation from above in order to notice patterns and to have a vantage point on what, how, and why something happened. Ronald A. Heifez and Marty Linsky, Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive through the Dangers of Leading, (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 2002), 53.