Van Tillians love to say there are no “uninterpreted facts.” All facts are already “pre-interpreted by God.”
Now, when you get them to explain just what a “pre-interpreted fact” looks like, that ends much of the discussion. But I think we can take it a step further.
{1} There is no such thing as a blank world. Van Tillians have always been good on this point.
{2} Any such world we find ourselves in already has meaning from a host of relationships.
{3} These relationships constitute a finitude of sorts. We can never rise above our tacit assumptions.
{4} This finitude is embodiment. We are not simply isolated intellects, but situated intellects–situated and embodied. We are always embodied individuals and we experience the world as being-in-the-world (per Heidegger).
{5} Worldview talk usually focuses on the intellectual. And that’s necessary. But w-v thinkers rarely focus on institutions and cultural practices. Social structures and our bodily being-in-the-world also function in a “pre-theoretical” (per Dooyeweerd) manner.
As Jamie Smith says, ““Affect and emotion are part of the ‘background’ I bring with me that constitutes the situation as a certain kind of situation” (35)” Antepredicative knowing–the affective register upon which narrative operates–is processed by the body below the cognitive level (Merleau-Ponty).
{6} Pre-cognitive perception breaks down the traditional epistemology of subjects and objects. “The world is not what I think, but what I live through” (Merleau-Ponty). Our being-in-the-world is between instinct and intellect (43). We aren’t just thinking-things. “We don’t have being-in-the-world; we are being-in-the-world” (44).
{7} Horizon: background presuppositions and habits. Horizons operate without our thinking. I do not consciously invoke my horizons in order to understand the world. They are social and shared but not a priori or universal.
Recommended Reading.
Martin Heidegger, Being and Time.
Hans-George Gadamer, Truth and Method.
James K. A. Smith, Imagining the Kingdom.
Outlaw Huguenot 