Cultivating Shalom: A Response to John Stackhouse’s Epistemology

Abstract

John Stackhouse’s new book, Need to Know, takes up the complexity of the Christian pursuit of knowing and serving God in the fullest sense of those terms by attending to the Creation Mandate and the call to love God and one’s neighbor. He sees the problem as Christians either compartmentalizing or capitulating to culture in their thinking. The traditional Wesleyan Quadrilateral (Stackhouse calls it the Christian Quadrilateral) needs an upgrade, which Stackhouse seeks to provide. This involves an overview of current understandings of epistemology, including cognitive pluralism, and an engagement with intellectual resources (the pentalectic) through modes of apprehension. His most provocative conclusion, and a convincing one to me, is that now we know only in part, and God seems content with this state of affairs (17). The strengths of this book are many, including the following three items. First, Stackhouse demonstrates unwavering commitment to wrestle with the paradox of seeking to know that which in the end is perhaps beyond human understanding. Second, he makes a passionate plea for Christians to act boldly on what they have been given to know. Third, he integrates current concerns of our postmodern culture with the Christian vision for human and creation flourishing by offering an epistemology that is both responsive and responsible (18). He hopes his efforts will build community as all humans “seek the common good in global flourishing” (90). At first read, a weakness in his effort is the book’s organization, for in addressing the several components of vocation, epistemology and Christian calling, Stackhouse pursues several side issues or offers lengthy digressions that interrupt the argument’s march forward. Yet perhaps the very configuration of the book exhibits the spiral nature of knowing, for events inform beliefs, and new events and experiences further impact those beliefs, and subsequent actions and responses call for adjustments in our knowing and doing. Stackhouse moves the reader along, anticipating possible objections and encouraging new vistas as he pursues his “outline of just how Christians ought to think about whatever they are called to think about” (18).