The Third Perspective

Abstract

In the first chapter we looked at two religious perspectives on the issue of cognitivity, each of which appeals to religious intuitions and each of which in some way captures a part of the truth, although a tension exists between the two. There is also a Third Perspective on religious cognitivity that is identifiable within the Judaeo-Christian heritage. This is not to say that it is limited to that heritage, and in fact it is not. Given the aetiology of the concerns of this book, however, I shall focus on the Third Perspective in its Judaeo-Christian manifestation, as I have done for the first two perspectives. Nevertheless at times I shall point out how the Third Perspective applies to other religious traditions. In the Judaeo-Christian heritage the Third Perspective is embodied in the reflections of certain though not all mystics, in the sensibilities of the authors of various devotional works, and pre-eminently in the Psalms. Also the Third Perspective is found in other styles of religious reflection and expression. Those philosophers of religion and religious thinkers who look to the kind of religious experience that informs the Psalms, to the extent they do so, stand over toward the Third Perspective.