Navel-gazing

The subject of navel-gazing has come up, and I've been thinking about it (navel-gazing, as it were).

I am inclined to agree with Professor John Frame, from whom I learned in The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God that the structure of all knowledge is triangular. There are only three things in the world to know: God, the World, and Myself. That covers everything.

Now some folks might start with the World. They are our journalists and reporters. And if they are Christians, they relate what they discover about the World back to God, and to Themselves. Example: The welfare system is broken (World); Welfare is problematic because God made man to work (God), and the system often promotes sloth (Myself).

Other folks might start with God. Those are our John Calvins and Martin Luthers --- although you can see the limitation right away in categorizing them that way. A case can be made that theologians also take the World or Themselves as their starting point; it's a matter of emphasis. Charles Spurgeon, a world-class navel-gazer, got his fodder for thought from God and from the World, and put out a fine daily devotional I enjoy.

The point is that as a Christian it's almost a matter of indifference which of the three corners of the triangle you begin with. You have to work with your particular bent of mind, I guess.