Experience
2008 April 5
I have a general question which (I hope) might be interesting to discuss:
In what sense do you think experience is a source in theology?
I ask because I’ve been reading liberation theologians and because of a conversation that’s been going on at the BHT over the place of experience vis a vis scripture.
Thoughts?
(edit: Dan, the discussion has been going for a few days now, and there’s probably 20 or more posts in that discussion, but here’s one of the most recent by Michael Spencer that I liked: Truth in Labeling.)
Andrew, could you link to the BHT posts (I’d be curious what they’d say about it).
Experience is data that theology has to account for. Whether it provides information about the world outside ourselves or inside ourselves is another matter. If we were to compare experience with scripture, then I would say that it would be no contest. Experience simply cannot provide much in the way of reliable data on the external world.
As for moral intuitions (which are not a part of experience), either they are right in general or we know nothing at all about morality.