Donovan - Can We Know God By Experience?

INTRODUCTION

• ' If you realy experience God you dont have to argue as you know he's real'
• If we are trying to justify religious experience we must take into account knowledge from inner conviction
• It is risky to claim we know something for certain if we cant give reasons for our claim
• Irrational and misguided things have been said by dictators who claimed to just know
• Also by people confused by ignorance and blinded by prejudice
• To have no doubts at all about a belief may be a symptom of insanity or arrogance
• Believers may still believe they have a right to say they know God because they have experienced God's reality for themselves
• We laugh at people who say 'I know I'm right dont confuse me with arguments' but we sometimes want to say it too
• There are situations in which we feel sure even though we are at loss for a good argument to back up our claim
• 'I know I have two hands' , 'I know you are the person I spoke to yesterday'
• Our experience of being confident that we are right is our INTUITION
• Intuitive knowledge seems to be direct and convincing, needing no further argument
• Are there such things as intuition in religious matters? Does conviction in religious experience give us a right to say we just know without any proof?

KNOWLEDGE FROM INTUITION

• A number of mid twentieth century theologians maintained that religious experience is a source of knowledge
• God is known through finite things- events and experiences
• He is known indirectly. His reality is not arrived at as the conclusion of an argument
• The writers drew attention to the important part of direct, intuitive awareness
• They argued that intutitve awareness from religious interpretations of experience can be a way of knowing
• HP Owen - The Christian Knowledge of God
• Owen said that intuition is necessary for our grasp of the material world via experiences our sensory organs give us
• Owen says we dont just percieve other people as visible tangible beings but as minds and feelings
• a. Just as a human person reveals their inner nature through their outer acts, God reveals himself to us in the created order
• b. Just as there are special moments in which another person's inner self stands out and challenges our attention, so God is known most clearly by his special revelation in Christ
• c. Just as a human's acts reveal their ecistence as a self and something of their character, God's signs in nature and our experience allow us to learn of his existence and character
• d. Just as we intuitively grasp that another person is a subject and agent who brings about physical and mental effects, so we apprehend God who maintains both physical and spiritual realities
• Our intuition of God just like our intuition of other people has a 'mediated immediacy' - it is not the product of reson or inference but is none the less mediated by finite things: bodily movements, words…