Gordon Clark: Review of “A Christian Perspective of Knowing,” by Earl E. Barrett (Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society)

1965. Review of “A Christian Perspective of Knowing,” by Earl E. Barrett. Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society. Vol. 8. No. 2. Spring.

A Christian Perspective of Knowing, by Earl E. Barrett (Beacon Hill Press, New York, 1965), 224 pages, $4.95. Reviewed by Gordon H. Clark, Butler University, N.Y. 

The author surveys epistemology under (mainly) the headings Authoritarianism, Rationalism, Empiricism, Intuitionism, and Christian Mysticism. Analysis shows that each one of these is inadequate as a theory of knowledge. However, each has some contribution to make to an organic whole in which they all cooperate. 

This method of finding some good in all preceding theories can boast of the example of Aristotle. The danger is that in the process the definitions of Rationalism, Empiricism, and so on are forgotten; what is salvaged is not a part of any of these, strictly understood; and the final combination may not be so systematic as one might wish. 

The Preface states that this book is designed as a textbook for college students. That it gives an elementary survey of important phases of epistemology, there can be no doubt; but the author's wide reading may tend to baffle the student. References to twenty or thirty different authors are made in every chapter. Of necessity these are too brief to give a college student an accurate idea of the context and implications. More advanced students, graduate students, would get more out of the material. Even so, the references sometimes stand in need of qualification and explanation. For example, what does the author mean by stating (page 90) that even in Democritus there was a pronounced tendency to view ultimate reality as spiritual? 

The position on which the author judges all his problems is an explicit and clear-cut Arminianism. He rejects the Reformation principle of sola Scriptura, and insists in a four-fold criterion of truth: Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. Man is autonomous, and God's grace is not irresistible. Truth seems to be superior to God, for "Even God's knowing it does not constitute the truth of anything. That is, God knows it is true because it is true" (p. 39). Yet, in the realm of the undetermined, man is able to create truth, for "faith reinforced by the will is a maker of truth" (p. 75). 

Although each method alone is inadequate, the author thinks that mysticism is the best. Christian Mysticism unites Rationalism and Empiricism. Examples of mystics, among others, are St. Francis, St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa, St. Catherine, Kagawa, E. Stanley Jones, and, "Of course, Christ is the mystic par excellence" (pp. 180-181). Of course, also, mysticism is understood rather broadly. It would seem that Neis Ferre and Paul Tillich are to be included with these others. And thus the insights of many different schools are united in one organic whole.