In many spheres, the question not just of what we know but of how we know is urgent and vital. I have tried to develop the notion of love as the ultimate form of knowledge and to explore its wider relevance.
My history with this question begins in the 1980s, when I was growing concerned by profound distortions in my discipline of New Testament studies. These distortions could be traced to the philosophy, and especially the epistemology, of the Enlightenment. Biblical scholars seldom think about philosophical presuppositions. We plunge straight into the texts, often assuming a positivism in which we can know straightforwardly what’s true and what’s not, distinguishing sharply between “the sure and certain results of scientific research” on the one hand, and the fluid, uncertain world of possible theological meanings on the other. The former is (supposedly) “objective” and the latter (supposedly) “subjective,” mere pious speculation.
