Chapter 2: Puzzling Reflections in a Mirror

In Chapter 2 of Christianity with Power: Your Worldview and Your Experience of the Supernatural, Dr. Kraft addresses our perception of reality.  He begins by quoting 1 Corinthians 13:12;

What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror; then we shall see face-to-face.  What I know now is only partial; then it will be complete - as complete as God's knowledge of me. 

Kraft differentiates between reality, which he defines as how human beings understand things and REALITY, which he defines as how God sees things.  He then presents four ways we view the differences between reality and REALITY.  These are as follows:

1. Denying there is any difference between one's own position and what is absolutely right.  This approach results in dogmatism and is technically known as naive realism.
2. Nobody is completely wrong or right.  These folks conclude that there is no REALITY, or, if there is, it is irrelevant.  This approach is technically known as relativism.
3. The Agnostic.  These folks conclude that if there is a REALITY, we cannot know it.
4. The Two-Realities Position.  The technical term for this position is critical realism.   These folks conclude that there is a reality as we actually perceive it and a REALITY, as it actually is.

What Kraft is arguing in this presentation is that in order to be open to a new and different understanding about the supernatural, we must realize the difference between reality and REALITY.  We must realize that even though "we cannot understand absolutely, we need to learn as much as possible about REALITY and to adjust our perception of reality accordingly.  To do this we must learn to be open to understandings that lie beyond those we now have."  (page 15)

Kraft then presents the ways we are taught to interpret things the way we do.  He suggests that "we are strongly indoctrinated long before we seek to make any of our own choices in perceiving reality."  (page 18)  He suggests that there are at least four ways this happens:

1. We are taught to interpret in culturally approved ways and rewarded when we conform.
2. We are taught to see selectively.
3. We accept things that confirm what we've been taught.
4. As pointed out by Paul, we see REALITY only dimly and partially (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Kraft concludes the chapter by presenting the five factors that he believes influence our view of REALITY.

1. Our worldview, which he defines as "the culturally structured assumptions, values, and commitments underlying a people's perception of REALITY." (page 20)
2. The limitations of our experience.
3. A person's personality or temperament.
4. Our will.
5. The sin factor.

Kraft's purpose in this second chapter is to help his reader see the limitations our culture and worldview place on our perception of REALITY.  If we are unable to walk in the realm of critical realism, we will never be able to approach a paradigmatic shift in regards to the supernatural.

I like Kraft's analysis.  I believe that one of the sins of evangelicals, especially those of us who have historically been closed to the supernatural activity of God, is our dogmatism.  We seem to be convinced that we can fully understand and explain the ways of God.  We seem to constantly take the position that anyone who disagrees with our understanding of God is simply wrong.  I am convinced that this sin of dogmatism is nothing less than pure fear; of the unknown, of not being right and of being out of control. 

Where do you stand when it comes to these things?  Are you a naive realist, a relativist, an agnostic or a critical realist?  I have to admit that I was a naive realist until my experience of REALITY overseas came into conflict with my reality here at home.