Posted on by Abe Austin

Knowledge vs Practice- Conclusion

Deepening Theories)

I began this study simply to explain why I don’t like statements like, “action is better than knowledge.” While I saw some validity to that statement, I felt it obscured the fact that these two components of faith actually have a symbiotic relationship with one another, each requiring the other to properly exist. In the course of this study, I tried to clarify and express my own position, which ended up leading me to an even deeper understanding of the subject, as any good study should. Here are the three levels of depth that I identified in the relationship between these two components:

  1. Knowledge is fulfilled when we put it into genuine practice, and genuine practice is dependent upon us first gaining knowledge. Ultimately, all of our faithful actions have their roots in revelations of true knowledge given by God.
  2. Practice leads back to greater knowledge. It turns out that knowledge to practice is not a one-way street. The two exist in a cycle. Small actions are inspired by small knowledge, and they yield a testimony of greater knowledge, inspiring greater actions.
  3. Knowledge is the conceptual seed that only becomes part of physical reality through our practice of it. We are moved when we learn key concepts, such as mercy, but at this point that concept is only metaphysical. It is as we put that concept into practice, by actually extending mercy to another who has wronged us, that the metaphysical becomes a living reality in the world.

Essential, Thus Equal)

Thus, can we truly say that knowledge is inferior to practice? They are inseparably linked to one another, each performing a different but complementary role, neither existing without the other. Can we say that the conceptual is more important than reality, or that reality is more important than the conceptual? Both are essential, neither exists without the other.

Of course, when we look at a specific individual, we can probably identify some knowledge which he has not allowed to bloom as practice in his daily life, and in that case, yes, it would be better for him if he let his knowledge become truly alive through action. But that is a statement of how the person becomes better, not a measure of practice being more essential than knowledge.

Like anyone else, I am such a person who has unfulfilled knowledge in me. Having the knowledge isn’t the problem, the problem is that I have held it back, obstructed it from its destination. I pray that I learn to take some of my life, and give it to those ideals, so that the ideals become truly alive through me.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Knowledge vs Practice- The Mystery Connection

A Connection Between Worlds)

Two posts ago I spoke about the apparent limitless potential of knowledge to cause change in the lives of individuals and the world. Of course, while knowledge can be the catalyst for action it is not the action itself.

This is tied to an interesting phenomenon that has puzzled man for thousands of years. Many have noted how something that is merely conceptual can become something manifest in reality. It is a pattern that we observe, and know that this connection clearly exists, but we don’t actually understand how it works. The theologian, the philosopher, the biologist, and the physicist, none of them have found out the mystery of this connection.

Why do mathematical truths, purely conceptual, play out in physical reality? How do concepts in the mind become come out as words from our mouths? And how does mere knowledge become action? In all these examples and more, we see that the metaphysical world can manipulate and change the physical, but it does so by a secret method that God has not deemed fit to reveal.

Metaphysical Origins)

My purpose in pointing this out is to show that if knowledge is merely conceptual, and we have a common pattern of the conceptual somehow being translated into manifest reality, then that supports my initial claim that knowledge precedes action and then action begets new knowledge. For that is the common pattern that we see between the immaterial and material states of man. The artist has a creative vision, and builds the monument, and then the monument inspires a creative vision in the mind of its beholder.

To gain knowledge is to expand our immaterial domain, which increases our ability to perform in the real world. But note that the expansion of knowledge only increases the ability to perform. It is possible to gain much knowledge and never translate it into action, in which case it is wasted. But when we do see greater action, it must come from a place of greater knowledge.

I want to take a moment to make clear that when I advocate for the gaining of knowledge, I do not merely mean acquiring trivial facts. Knowledge can take more than one form. To hear a revelation of a specific truth is one form of knowledge, one that is factual. To be moved emotionally by a kind act is another form of knowledge, one that is experiential. Thus, a person who knows little in the way of “facts” may still possess a great reserve of “understanding,” and from that have the immaterial knowledge to give tremendous action.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Ideals Made Alive

Truth, mercy, justice, hope, love, and courage.

These ideals belong to a higher plane of existence: what the spiritual man calls heaven, the philosopher calls metaphysics, and the mathematical man calls abstraction. Though immaterial and conceptual, these concepts are not sealed off from the living world.

When we lend our lives to these ideals, these ideals become alive. We are the vessels to speak truth, show mercy, enact justice, raise hope, share love, and stand in courage. These principles take form through us.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 26:34-35

34 And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.

35 And thou shalt set the table without the veil, and the candlestick over against the table on the side of the tabernacle toward the south: and thou shalt put the table on the north side.

We have a brief two-verse interlude to describe the placement of the previously described instruments within the constructed tabernacle. The Ark of the Covenant is to go behind the curtain that divides the holy place from the most holy place and have its mercy seat affixed on top of it. Then the table of shewbread and the candlestick will be placed on the other side of the curtain.

When walking into the tabernacle, the priest will be on the eastern side, with the candlestick on his left hand (on the south side of the tabernacle) and the table of shewbread on his right hand (on the north side of the tabernacle). There may be some significance to that placement. The left hand has been traditionally associated with the conceptual, the creative, and the spiritual, which is better represented by the transcendent, immaterial quality of light. The right hand has been associated with order, structure, and certainty, which is better represented by the physical, deliberately-constructed quality of bread.

Even the shape of the candlestick with its odd angles and curves and the table with its squared corners and edges speaks to that duality of chaotic potential and ordered reality. Standing between them both would be the priest, representing man who has ever had a foot in both the conceptual and literal world. Opposite the man, and also resting between the conceptual and literal world, would be the veil and the Ark of the Covenant on the other side. This, of course, represents God. He is ahead of us, forward in the way that we want to go. To cross the tabernacle and reach him we must follow a straight path, keeping the conceptual left and the literal right in proper balance, which we will do so long as where we are walking is towards Him.