Believing the Incomprehensible God: Aquinas on Understanding God's Testimony

James Dominic Rooney*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

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Abstract

There has been recent epistemological interest as to whether knowledge is "transmitted" by testimony from the testifier to the hearer, where a hearer acquires knowledge "second-hand." Yet there is a related area in epistemology of testimony which raises a distinct epistemological problem: the relation of understanding to testimony. In what follows, I am interested in one facet of this relation: whether/how a hearer can receive testimonial knowledge without fully understanding the content of the testimony? I use Thomas Aquinas to motivate a case where, in principle, the content of received testimony cannot be understood but nevertheless constitutes knowledge. Aquinas not only argues that we can receive testimonial knowledge without understanding the content of that testimony, but that we have duties to do so in certain cases.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)111-122
Number of pages12
JournalProceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association
Volume92
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

User-Defined Keywords

  • THOMAS, Aquinas, Saint, ca. 1225-1274
  • GOD
  • THEORY of knowledge
  • MOTIVATION (Psychology)

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