Integrating Missionally

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This is a great video. Watch and pay attention to the story that is developed and the way it is communicated. Also notice how drawn in to the story you are.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Today I am going to begin work on a series of articles on epistemology. Epistemology seeks to develop a general theory stating the conditions under which people have knowledge and rational beliefs. It is the study of knowledge. During this journey I will be relying on introductions to epistemology from two authors: Richard Feldman and his book Epistemology in the Foundations of Philosophy Series and Robert Audi’s second edition of Epistemology: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy).

There are several sources of knowledge. What we know about our immediate environment comes from perception and sensation. This is our awareness of external things and comes through sight, hearing and the other senses. Yet it does not account for our knowledge of our own internal states. For instance, you know you feel sleepy. This is a result of introspection. Other times we know something through reasoning or inference. For instance, when we know some facts and see that those facts support some other fact, we can come to know that additional fact. Scientific knowledge seems to arise from inferences from observations. We know some things because we can “see” they are true. We have the ability to think about things and discern certain simple truths. Additionally, memory is crucial in the knowledge of our past and in certain facts. A person’s testimony can also be a source of knowledge. Testimony is not limited to statements made on a witness stand. It includes what other people tell you, including what they tell you about what they know from their environment. The complete list looks like this:

• Perception
• Memory
• Testimony
• Introspection
• Reasoning
• Rational insight

From these sources, epistemologists develop what is called The Standard View, which basically states that there are many sources of knowledge and they include those listed above. The subject matter of epistemology arises from The Standard View.
Obviously, for the christian, there is one primary source that are not included on this list. This is metaphysical knowledge or knowledge resulting from the interaction through religious practices and experiences.

The Standard View also holds that propositional knowledge is more fundamental than other types of knowledge. In epistemology in general, the kind of knowledge usually discussed is propositional knowledge, also known as “knowledge-that” as opposed to “knowledge-how.” For example: in mathematics, it is known that 2 + 2 = 4, but there is also knowing how to add two numbers. Many (but not all) philosophers therefore think there is an important distinction between “knowing that” and “knowing how”, with epistemology primarily interested in the former. A third type of knowing is “knowing of”, or knowledge by acquaintance also exists.

In Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy, Michael Polanyi articulates a case for the epistemological relevance of two forms of knowledge (knowledge-that and knowledge-how) using the example of the act of balance involved in riding a bicycle, he suggests that the theoretical knowledge of the physics involved in maintaining a state of balance cannot substitute for the practical knowledge of how to ride, and that it is important to understand how both are established and grounded.

Philosophers admit that propositional knowledge cannot explain everything. However, it does hold a special status.

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Taryn Simon exhibits her startling take on photography — to reveal worlds and people we would never see otherwise. She shares two projects: one documents otherworldly locations typically kept secret from the public, the other involves haunting portraits of men convicted for crimes they did not commit.

Why is this talk important? Taryn shows the impact of images on the brain. She demonstrates that our seeing is often distorted through experience. She also demonstrates the power of semiotics. The texts will change the mean of a photograph. Place a photograph in a different context, or surrounded by text, and the image will take on a different meaning.

This is powerful discussion of framing meaning.

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Hyperbolic discounting refers “to the empirical finding that people generally prefer smaller, sooner payoffs to larger, later payoffs when the smaller payoffs would be imminent. However, when the same payoffs are both more distant in time, people tend to prefer the larger outcome, even though the time lag from the smaller to the larger would be the same as before.” [1]

Most of us continue to make choices that will be detrimental to our future, despite the fact that we know the implications of our decisions. This is called temporal myopia. “[T]emporal myopia causes clarity to decrease with distance.”[2] Instead of inspiring caution, our brains’ typical response to this uncertainty is to “sharply reduce the importance of the future in our decision-making” [3], an effect known as hyperbolic discounting. Consequences which occur at a later time, good or bad, tend to have a lot less impact on our choices the more distantly they fall in the future. This occurs even when one’s life is at stake.

Here is an example using money. If someone were to offer you the choice between $50 right now or $100 tomorrow, taking the $100 tomorrow would seem the clear choice. However, as the delay gap widens, the importance of the extra $50 quickly diminishes for most people, despite the constancy of the actual value. For instance, “confronted with a choice between $50 today or $100 one year from now, would you still wait for the $100? Statistically speaking, the vast majority will take the $50. But the pattern follows a hyperbola, so once a certain time threshold is crossed, the devaluing effect of time diminishes; for example, most will opt to take $100 in ten years over $50 in nine years.” [4]

In essence, hyperbolic discounting is the human tendency to prefer smaller payoffs now over larger payoffs later. This leads a person to largely disregard the future when it requires sacrifices in the present. This “tendency may be the bias behind our temporal short-sightedness, causing many people to make decisions which lead to short-term happiness and long-term disaster.” [5] This is one reason that heart patients continue to have trouble with destructive behaviors after a heart attack. The long-term gain, which is potentially a longer life, is not as important as the short-term payoff of a piece of chocolate-peanut butter cheesecake. The uncertainty of the future is overcome by the immediate satisfaction.

What does this have to do with the Gospel? Well, how is the Gospel often presented? If one accepts now, we can enjoy eternity at some later, unknown, and abstract point in time. This is a reasoned attempt at getting someone to accept the Gospel, yet the human brain is not wired to accept and adopt this supposition. It is logical. It makes sense. However, it is too abstract and too far ahead in time. We need to address the short-term impact of the Gospel message in concrete terms that the brain can process.

How would you change the focus of how you present the Gospel?

NOTES:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbolic_discounting
[2] http://www.damninteresting.com/hyperbolic-discounting
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.

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The sixth principle from the Made to Stick is also the first principle that professional communication coach, Lynn Scarborough, says was part of Jesus’ communication style.  That principle is stories.  Stories work because they touch people on a number of levels. They tap into the emotions. They teach, inspire, correct and change people by touching the mind and the heart.  Stories stimulate a person’s senses and help people find themselves in the lives of others.  Stories also create a safe place for people, a place where no one can hurt a person.[1]

Stories are the foundation of the message.  Interaction is what attracts people to the message. Interaction “is like a baited hook.  It attracts attention, engages, ‘hooks’ and draws people into the message that is being communicated…Great interaction is like ‘word salt’ because it flavors information and makes it taste more palatable and more memorable.”[2] Jesus used questions and props to interact and teach.

Jesus also made use of multi-track communication. Communication is not simply a matter of the mind and the will, but “an intrinsic convergence of everything we are.  It is made up of what we do, what we say, what we sing, how we feel, what we desire, what we hope and what we dream”.[3]  There are five levels of multi-track communication: physical, emotional, intellectual, intuitive and spiritual. Jesus used multi-track communication to “expand his communication impact and make it more memorable”.[4]

Jesus was also prepared.  Master communicators understand that preparation is the key to successful communication. But it is not simply the preparation of the message. It also includes the preparation of the person.  Communicating effectively requires preparation in many different areas, including physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.  Jesus prepared his whole life for three short years of ministry.  He also prepared others to lead at his departure.  It was his “preparation and discipline” that “established the platform from which he launched history’s most transformational marketing campaign.”[5]

The fifth characteristic of Jesus’ communication is love. Love is the heart and soul of communication.  It is communication’s core.  “Master Communicators help us discover love because they help us discover ourselves.  They hold up a mirror of truth to our lives and help us to see the truth of our hearts.”[6]  Because Jesus was love, he taught, spoke, modeled and lived love and that made his communication life-giving.[7]

The final technique or characteristic of Jesus’ communication, according to Scarborough, is execution. She states, “[e]xecution is critical.  It requires energy, precision, commitment, and accurate focus.  Jesus reached his goals because he executed and hit the target whenever he communicated.  His examples were clear, his questions concise, and his responses precise.  He never let others pull him off track with their personal agendas and schedules.”[8]

NOTES:

[1] Lynn Wilford Scarborough, Talk Like Jesus (Beverly Hills, CA: Phoenix Books, 2007), 74-75.

[2] Ibid, 95.

[3] Ibid, 119.

[4] Ibid, 117.

[5] Ibid, 139.

[6] Ibid, 164.

[7] Ibid, 163.

[8] Ibid, 185.

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