I have been reflecting on my long intellectual journey to "struggle to know." Why is knowing a struggle? It is a struggle because you have to spend years learning what others told you is important to know, before you acquire the credentials and qualifications to say something about yourself. It is a struggle because you have to affirm first that you have something important to say and that your experience counts.
Labels: Gender Issues, Theology
At 9/15/2007 02:08:00 PM, John Lynch
Thanks for this, Julie -
So often it seems our experience of knowledge is intimately connected with our perspective on validation. What validates our opinions so that they become "knowledge"? And to whom are they "knowledge" anyway?
I've found that it is indeed a painful journey, full of struggle, to shift the sources of our validation from what our broken pasts have taught us to what God teaches us.
All the best as the Lord becomes your and all of our true knowledge... a knowledge which we can relationally grasp as individuals - despite the deceptions of this distorted world.
Peace in Christ,
- John
I think it is most difficult for the voices that are least heard to realise they have something worth saying - at least (white) men have the advantage of often finding it easier to access the system and have traditionally been more likely to be listened too. Which gives us more of a responsibility to listen to others and recognise that their struggle is harder but what they have to say is often more worthwhile as a result of being voices not often heard before...