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Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity and Islam, take it as a matter of faith that God exists, and in some way can reveal his will to people. Members of those faiths distinguish between true prophets and false prophets; and there are documents offering criteria with which to distinguish true from false prophets. The question of epistemology then arises (how to know?). In Judaism, issues of epistemology have been addressed by Jewish philosophers such as Saadiah Gaon (882–942) in his Book of Beliefs and Opinions; Maimonides (1135–1204) in his Guide for the Perplexed; Samuel Hugo Berman, professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University; Joseph Dov Soloveitchik (1903–1993), talmudic scholar and philosopher; Neil Gillman, professor of philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Elliot N. Dorff, professor of philosophy at the American Jewish University. It is believed by some that revelation can originate directly from a deity, or through an agent, such as an angel. One who has experienced such contact with or communication from the divine is often called a prophet. An article (p. 555) under the heading "mysticism," and contributed by Ninian Smart, J.F. Rowny Professor of Comparative Religion, University of California, and President of the American Academy of Religion, writing in the 1999 edition of "The Norton Dictionary of Modern Thought," (W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.), suggests that the more proper and wider term for such an encounter would be mystical, making such a person a mystic. All prophets would be mystics, but not all mystics would be prophets. Revelation from a supernatural source is of lesser importance in some other religious traditions, such as Taoism and Confucianism. |
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