Blogging on Longing to Know by Esther Meek

I was originally turned on to this book through Per Caritatem, who is featuring a series on Polanyi. Prof. Meek's book is a popularization of the philosophy of Michael Polanyi. As I read the introduction of the book while waiting for a friend to get out of his doctor's appointment, I thought to myself, "I have never been so excited to read a book after reading the intro."

Prof. Meek had strugglers, among others, in mind when she wrote the book:

I have in mind people who wrestle with questions concerning truth and possibility of knowledge as a result our culture's recent consensus shift from modernism to postmodernism. Philosophically, the shift has been centuries in th emaking, but it has only in recent decades reached the street. We have gone from struggling to conform to a stringent criteria to shore up our claims to absolute, objective truth to outright rejection of the entire enterprise - from absolute truth to no truth. Affirming no truth is not always a comfortable position for a human being. It leaves nagging questions.

She writes as a seminary prof at Covenant Seminary. I'm reading this book as a pastor, hoping to reach the same kind of people. My people swim in a postmodern pool and when we talk about being sure about the truthfulness of Scripture, being assured of salvation, and "let us affirm what we believe", people are squirming. They are asking "Can we know what he says we can know?" "How sure am I that I'm sure?" "How sure do I have to be before I say 'I'm a believer in Jesus'?"

To make the fullest use of the book, she asks the reader to Get a journal and Get a friend. This blog will be my public journal and you, reader, will be my pretend friend, in a very special Mr. Rodgers Neighbourhood (for US readers) or Mr. Dressup (for Canadian's, eh) way.

Are you sure you want to come along? I knew you would. Come along, neighbour.