{"id":29185,"date":"2022-10-20T22:32:42","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T05:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29185"},"modified":"2022-10-20T22:32:42","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T05:32:42","slug":"the-religious-implications-of-tacit-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-religious-implications-of-tacit-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"The Religious Implications of Tacit Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Biblical philosophers like the Lord Jesus and Paul occasionally spoke about mysteries. On one occasion, when asked why He spoke a lot in parables, Jesus explained that the ability to understand the mysteries of the kingdom has been given only to His followers. In other words, if He did not illustrate spiritual realities with parables, most of His audience would not understand. In line with this, Paul asked the Ephesian church to pray for him to have the \u201cright words\u201d to communicate the mystery<\/em> of the gospel[1]<\/a>. Paul\u2019s comment suggests an awareness of truth that is, mysteriously, sometimes difficult to communicate. It is this phenomenon that Polanyi, a Christian scientist-turned-philosopher refers to as tacit knowledge. So there’s the mystery of the gospel as well as the mystery of sometimes not knowing how to communicate the gospel.<\/p>\n

I consider The Tacit Dimension<\/em> a very insightful book but found portions of it difficult to understand. What seems clear is the book\u2019s primary argument: \u201cwe can know more than we can tell[2]<\/a>.\u201d Polanyi illustrates this by relating how we often know people\u2019s faces well enough to distinguish that from several others but<\/em> cannot explain how we are able to make that distinction. This intriguing reality draws my mind to the fact that while remembering faces is important for the police and personal relationships, the need for followers of Jesus to find a way to bridge the gap between the gospel that is known and what is told, has far greater implications.<\/p>\n

Using the police method of presenting different faces as a help to witnesses that help identify alleged criminals, Polanyi suggests that \u201cgiven adequate means for expressing ourselves,\u201d we can communicate effectively. I can only imagine how many crime mysteries would have remained unsolved without this type of police intervention. This is an important innovation for security in many societies. Likewise, followers of Jesus need innovative ways of resolving the mandate of ensuring the security<\/em> of our generation by effectively presenting Biblical truth in a culture where men have forgotten God. When we find ourselves short on innovative ways to communicate the gospel, we are invited to pray for wisdom, including the wisdom to transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.<\/p>\n

The reality of tacit knowledge may be one reason why the poor, although made in the image of God, struggle to communicate the value they have been blessed with. If this is the case, given my life calling and NPO, I certainly want to explore this more and help my community transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge.<\/p>\n

I am also struck by the way Polanyi integrates faith with science and philosophy. \u00a0In a culture where God is excluded and immoral pleasure is idolized, Polanyi contends that people \u201cneed a purpose which bears on eternity,\u201d and urges us not to be \u201csatisfied with our manifest moral shortcomings and with a society which has such shortcomings fatally involved in its workings.[3]<\/a>\u201d He concludes with the proposal that moral failure<\/p>\n

cannot be resolved on secular grounds alone. But its religious solution should become more feasible once religious faith is released from pressure by an absurd vision of the universe, and so there will open up instead a meaningful world which could resound to religion\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Ephesians 6:19<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Polanyi, Michael. The Tacit Dimension. (Garden City, New York. Double Day & Company, 1966). 4<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Polanyi, 92<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Polanyi, 92.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biblical philosophers like the Lord Jesus and Paul occasionally spoke about mysteries. On one occasion, when asked why He spoke a lot in parables, Jesus explained that the ability to understand the mysteries of the kingdom has been given only to His followers. In other words, if He did not illustrate spiritual realities with parables, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,2403],"class_list":["post-29185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-polanyi","tag-the-tacit-dimension","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29187,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29185\/revisions\/29187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}