Lewis defined the two experiences or ways of knowing with two French verbs: savoir and connaitre. Savoir is to know about something – to examine it, study it, analyze it. Lewis wrote: ‘But I have an idea that the true analysis of a thing ought not to be so like the thing itself. I should not expect a true theory of the comic to be itself funny.’
Yet the contemplation of an object, its savoir, is only one epistemological way. The other method of knowing – connaitre – is to enjoy an object, to become acquainted with it intimately, to experience and taste it.
-Terry Lindvall, Surprised by Laughter, p. 8
I’ve been familiar with this distinction for several years, but I appreciated Lindvall’s discussion of it. As a preacher, it is something that I want to remind myself of constantly. My goal is not to simply help people analyze the gospel, but to help them have a sense or feeling (experience) of it. And as an individual, I need to make sure that this is the case in my own experience.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones used to say something to the effect that we spend too much time preaching about the gospel and not enough time actually preaching the gospel. That is true of the preaching we perform in, and to, our own souls as well. We need ‘to experience and taste it.’
I think about the distinction between these two things often. I heard an analogy one time I will attempt to recycle:
Once there were two football teams. The first team studied their coach’s playbook devotedly. They studied it, and sought to know it forward and backwards. They wrote massive books analyzing the playbook. However, those players had no interest in getting on the field. In their mind, knowing the playbook WAS playing the field.
Then there was the other football team… The second team loved to play on the field. Infact, they loved it so much, they had no use for the playbook at all. They were perfectly happy to make a mess of things with all the profound blissfulness of the ignorant…
Some breeds of churchfolk love to read the Bible, and write about the Bible, and discuss the Bible. Yet they avoid all practice of love in their community. Knowing “about” the Bible is the complete experience to them.
Furthermore, this same breed of churchfolk is often baffled at their failures in trust or obedience. Dismayed, they return to the”playbook” [Bible] and try to educate-to-death their weakness. And yet, while the playbook gives us directive knowledge (savoir), it is only in taking the field and engaging in the practice, by God’s grace, that we come to full knowing (connaitre). Or to put it back into the analogy: you don’t always lose football games because you don’t attempt the right play. Sometimes you just aren’t a good player. Going back to study the playbook isn’t always the answer.
Of course, then there is that playbook-ignoring football team, which one wants to avoid becoming as well…
Good illustration. We need balance.