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Chapter 2 Beliel, Knowledge, and Experience "The Lord Can Be Mysterious" The setting is antebellum Alabama; the occasion, a conversation between an African American saint and a white man whose soul's status remains uncertain. The saint, named only Jack, had been born in Africa, carried in chains across the waters, and converted to Christianity on the plantation that claimed him as property . The narrator is the plantation mistress:«Once, just after [Jack] had been publicly shouting and proclaiming how precious he had found Jesus to his soul, a young man looking on said to him: (Jack, don't be so certain about having Jesus with you. You only hopeyou have him, I guess.' c (Mr.Thomson, do you hopeyou have your hat on your head?' c (Hope, Jack?Why I knowI have it on.' c (Butyou can't seeit: it's on the back of your head.' c (But I can feel it; returned Mr. Thomson, a little out of patience with Jack's questioning. c (Yes,that's just so. Youfeelit. Well,Mr. Thomson, that's just the way with Jack. I know I've got my Jesus in my heart. I can't see Him, but I feel Him. 0 how I feel Him! Blessthe Lord! Blessthe Lord!' And Jackwent to shouting again."! * * * * * Jack'swords are tellingly similar to those uttered by Elder Richardson more than a century later. Both speakers draw belief, knowledge, and experience into a single referential field, linking the three in a way that proclaims their intrinsic accord. This communion has alwaysmarked the language of the saints. And it has always drawn talk beyond words to the actuality of supernatural encounter. Here, in the realm of religious experience, lies talk's final reference point. Indeed, one could argue that the language of experience-a language grounded in subjectivity and the recognition of shared sensation -stands as the saints' primary medium for articulating both knowledge and belief.' Religious experience, as both Elder Richardson and Jack attest, grants a special kind of knowing. It imparts a knowledge said to resonate with the soul, a knowledge carrying so much certainty that it denies the need for objective verification and makes all calls for public validation seem petty and irrelevant. This deep knowing is of a markedly different order from that gained in everyday encounter; indeed, it is said to make all mundane knowledge seem shallow, insubstantial, unimportant. Worldly knowledge, say the saints, must be achieved;it accrues from study, from reflection, from the heeded lessons of everyday experience. Such knowledge, grounded in the shallow wisdom of mortality, is ever subject to error and ever susceptible to the shifting winds of argument. Spiritual knowledge, in contrast, does not depend on the studied efforts of self. This is knowledge imparted , a knowing granted from outside the individual. The mind receivesit with a reported flash of understanding, realizing immediately its inherent and unchanging verity. There's no doubt, no room for argument. The human spirit, recognizing holy Spirit, proclaims its truth." This knowledge, in turn, informs belief. Granting special insight into the mysteries of existence, it helps fill the frame of faith, enlivening the holy text while drawing believers directly into the process of divine revelation. This is not to say that the knowledge granted through experience necessarily determinesbelief, for in most casesit isbelief that first convicts the soul and leads sinners to embrace Christ as savior. Belief stands as the foundation of Christian consciousness; it grants entree into the world of holiness and guides believers in their journey toward sanctification. As such, belief frames all thought and action in the community of saints. This framing places belief in a dynamic relationship with experience and knowledge . But it would be a mistake to presume that belief commands primacy in this relationship. Belief does not decreethe interpretation of experience; nor does it define the meanings of granted knowledge. Divinely induced experience and knowledge are said to carry with them full understanding; they need not reference belief for verification. What belief offers is a frame for understanding, a way of situating the fleeting encounter and flash of understanding in the timelessness of celestial design. Acting only as a frame, belief does not shape sensibility; it does not -as social scientists have traditionally claimed-distort perception and twist cognition in order to satisfy established theological imperatives. This assumption grants a special primacy to belief, giving it determinative power over both experience and knowledge; in a sense, it makes the latter dependent on...

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