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The central problem of religious epistemology reconciling faith with intellectual honesty. Knowledge is justified true belief

o Condition of Correspondenceo Condition of Verification

PositionA: faith is expressive or emotive (e.g. R. B. Braithwaite)

PositionB: faith is fideistic (e.g. S. Kierkegaard)Position C: faith is bipolar, evidential grounds are necessary but lacking (e.g. W. Pannenberg)

PositionE: traditional reading of faith (e.g. natural theology)1. syllogistic, vertical argumentation (mode of premises and conclusions)2. truth is propositional

a. correspondence theory = adequation of truth and realityb. coherence theory = proposition logically consistent with other propositions

within a belief system

c. pragmatic theory = truth is what worksPositionD: rethinking religious epistemology

1. The character of the truth of faith is excessivity (cf. I.T. Ramseys disclosuremodel theory).

2. This character of excessivity contravenes the traditional laws of thoughta. Law of Identity (A is A, but something more)b. Law of Non-contradiction (tradition of negative theology, A and A)c. Law of the Excluded Middle (faith is eschatological, already-but-not-yet,

hence the instantiation of a middle term, a metaxu).

Faith and Event Metaphysics

From Being to BecomingFrom Substance to Process

From Object to Event

Luminaries include: Alfred North Whitehead, Isabelle Stengers, Gilles Deleuze, AlainBadiou, Claude Romano, etc.

Is the

cognitive

dimension

of religious

belief

essential?

Is support

necessary?

Can reasons

be given?

Must they be

a priori /a

posteriori

YES

NO

YES

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO

A

B

C

D

E

and/or

inductive/

deductive?

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A. Modes of Event Ad-venire

o A coming into, an arrival, a landing of the othero Transcendence

E-venireo

Unfoldingo Immanence

B. Metaphysics of Event Recuperating the category of relationality Transformation understood as origamic (ontology of the folds) Affirmation of the already-but-not-yet Epistemology of the Promise

C. Basic Human Activity for Aristotle: Theoria = contemplation of the truth

Praxis = action which is an end in itself Poiesis = action that produces somethingD. Corresponding Domain of Rationality

Theoria = speculative reason (sophia) Praxis = practical reason (phronesis) Poiesis = creative reason (?)

E. Phantasia Pejorative understanding:

o Daydreamo Illusory appearanceo Whimsical notion

Phantasia as a possible intellectual virtue:o To picture to oneselfo To imagineo To show or to bring to light (phainein), related to phos (light)o To make visible or to make it appear (n.b. truth as unveiling)

F. Imagination as Proposition

Condition of Correspondence (cf. Deleuze)Possible Real

Virtual Actual

Condition of Verificationo Fidelity (to the event)

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G. Contours of a Becoming-Subject The cause of the subject is an event. There is no subject prior to event An evental subject is a divided subject. An event constituted subject is

origamic

Defining character of a subject is fidelity. Thinking according to--H. Essential Characteristics of Truth in Religion (cf. Alain Badiou)

theory of equality before truth = since no Christian subject pre-exists theChrist-event, all are constituted as sons-subjects or co-workers in thedeclaration and fidelity to the event and its implications.

Truth is subjective = it belongs to the Christian discourse of declaration arisingfrom the conviction that one has relative to the Christ-event

Truth is a process = it is de-substantialized, a truth procedure. Truth is indifferent to the state of the situation = the subtraction essential in

the emergence of truth postulates a distance from the state of the situation.This is the basis of the truths universality.

I. Truth indicators of faith

Epistemic fit within a religious doxastic network. Empirical fit = faith needs to do justice to the religious experience of the

person(individual pole) and the longstanding religious tradition from where

that religious belief emerged and is sustained (community pole). Poietic fit = witnessing of a believer productive of elements germinal of

corporate identity.