“The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God”, John M. Frame Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 1987, 437 pp.

Overview—Give a brief overview of the book, including its theme, perspective and approach.

"The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God" is a seminary level treatment of Christian theological epistemology. Frame seeks to demonstrate how one gains true knowledge of God, the world, and one's self, under the Lordship of our covenant God. He addresses the objects, the justification, and the methods of knowledge. Frame comes from a studied Reformed perspective.

Critique—Offer a brief critique of the book, including elements of strength and weakness.

Frame's strengths lie in his comprehensiveness. At over 400 pages, DKG leaves few stones unturned. Of course, this has its downside in that one can easily "lose the forest for the trees". I found myself needing to come up for air a few times. I also found his tri-perspectival framework very helpful. At first the idea seemed a bit contrived and forced, but as I considered it further and saw how he fleshed it out, I became more comfortable with the idea. Utilizing a normative, situational, and existential approach allows Frame to find helpful insights from scripture, reason, and experience. This allows one to appreciate varied perspectives without demonizing those with whom we disagree.

I will have to think more about his assertion that Scripture is the ultimate presupposition. I understand the primacy and authority of Scripture, but it seems that there might be certain logical presuppositions that are hardwired into our humanity, without which we cannot make sense of anything, including Scripture. In the mere act of reading a coherent sentence we apply certain logical presuppositions (non-contradiction, causal connectedness, etc…). And we also need a coherent hermeneutic so that we may understand what we read as well. These, it seems, we bring to the inspired, authoritative text. But this is not my area of expertise, so I will have to think through these issues.

Application—Offer some specific application to your own ministry— demonstrating the value and relevance of the material in this book.

As an encyclopedic treatment of epistemology, DKG will serve as a serious reference tool as I wrestle with the issues of epistemology. His section on Logic is a textbook in itself! I plan to apply his tri-perspectival approach to various areas of pastoral ministry (counseling, leadership development), biblical understanding, and cultural assessment.

Best Quote—Be sure to include the page number where the quote can be found.

p. 45 "For a Christian, the content of Scripture must serve as his ultimate presupposition. Our beliefs about Scripture may be corrected by other beliefs about scripture, but relative to the body of extra-scriptural information we possess, those beliefs are presuppostional in character. This doctrine is merely the outworking of the lordship of God in the area of human thought.