Special divine insight: escaping the Snow Queen's palace
Insights play a role in every field that can be called knowledge, but are of particular interest to the philosophy of religion and special divine action. Although these acts of understanding cannot be generated at will, a second person can vastly accelerate understanding by a first person. In this p...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal article |
| Published: |
European Journal for Philosophy of Religion
2015
|
| _version_ | 1797078774108389376 |
|---|---|
| author | Pinsent, A |
| author_facet | Pinsent, A |
| author_sort | Pinsent, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Insights play a role in every field that can be called knowledge, but are of particular interest to the philosophy of religion and special divine action. Although these acts of understanding cannot be generated at will, a second person can vastly accelerate understanding by a first person. In this paper, I argue that this catalysis of insight is best attained in a situation of ‘second-person relatedness’, involving epistemic humility and shared awareness of shared focus. I also argue that this approach provides an appropriate interpretation of Aquinas’s account of God’s gift of understanding. On this basis, it is specifically the context of second-person relatedness to God, as ‘I’ to ‘you’, that is expected to have the most far-reaching impact on understanding of the world. I illustrate the conclusions by means of the story of The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen, drawing also some practical implications for insights in daily life. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:36:32Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:819d3fb6-eee9-422c-bbc1-441d51646209 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:36:32Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | European Journal for Philosophy of Religion |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:819d3fb6-eee9-422c-bbc1-441d516462092022-03-26T21:31:19ZSpecial divine insight: escaping the Snow Queen's palaceJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:819d3fb6-eee9-422c-bbc1-441d51646209Symplectic Elements at OxfordEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Religion2015Pinsent, AInsights play a role in every field that can be called knowledge, but are of particular interest to the philosophy of religion and special divine action. Although these acts of understanding cannot be generated at will, a second person can vastly accelerate understanding by a first person. In this paper, I argue that this catalysis of insight is best attained in a situation of ‘second-person relatedness’, involving epistemic humility and shared awareness of shared focus. I also argue that this approach provides an appropriate interpretation of Aquinas’s account of God’s gift of understanding. On this basis, it is specifically the context of second-person relatedness to God, as ‘I’ to ‘you’, that is expected to have the most far-reaching impact on understanding of the world. I illustrate the conclusions by means of the story of The Snow Queen, by Hans Christian Andersen, drawing also some practical implications for insights in daily life. |
| spellingShingle | Pinsent, A Special divine insight: escaping the Snow Queen's palace |
| title | Special divine insight: escaping the Snow Queen's palace |
| title_full | Special divine insight: escaping the Snow Queen's palace |
| title_fullStr | Special divine insight: escaping the Snow Queen's palace |
| title_full_unstemmed | Special divine insight: escaping the Snow Queen's palace |
| title_short | Special divine insight: escaping the Snow Queen's palace |
| title_sort | special divine insight escaping the snow queen s palace |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pinsenta specialdivineinsightescapingthesnowqueenspalace |