More than 100 people filled Perkins’ Prothro Great Hall on April 1 for a thought-provoking conversation at the intersection of faith and reason. The occasion: the William J. Abraham Lecture, named in honor of the late Billy Abraham, and featuring guest speaker John Greco, a leading voice in epistemology and religious philosophy.
Greco’s lecture, titled “Knowledge of God?”, explored the enduring philosophical question: Is knowledge of God possible?
Greco drew attention to a “double mindedness” among believers: On the one hand, they shy away from making claims about knowledge of God in academia or in the public sphere; on the other hand, they don’t hold back on such claims in their private lives.
“When you tell your child, ‘You are a beautiful child of God,’ you don’t say, ‘But at least that’s what I believe,’” he said. “It doesn’t even occur to us that we don’t know that God created this beautiful child. I want to challenge this double mindedness a little bit.”
He cited an “animating theme” that infused Abraham’s work, including the principle Abraham called “epistemic fit” — the idea that we know different things in different ways.
“The way you know, say geometry or mathematics, is different from the way you know about the empirical world of biology, or the way you know what’s right or wrong,” Greco said. “The principle of epistemic fit says: Don’t confuse the proper methodology for knowing one kind of subject area with the proper methodology of knowing another subject area,” he said. “So for religious belief, don’t take a mathematical model for how you would know that God exists or is creator.”
Dr. Frederick Aquino, Professor of Systematic Theology at Perkins and Director of the Abraham Lecture Series, highlighted the broad reach of the event. Among the attendees were included faculty, students, administrators, alumni, church leaders, and philosophers—some religious, some not.
“We had people who are part of the Global Methodist Church, The United Methodist Church, and other denominations, some who don’t go to church, and people from a variety of disciplines, including philosophers,” he said. “And more importantly, John Greco offered an engaging talk that I believe was accessible for everyone in the room.”
The Abraham Lectures aim to create space for interdisciplinary conversations about contemporary questions and issues of significance, as a way of extending the spirit of Billy Abraham’s work into the future, Aquino added, and he’s pleased so far with the response.
“Each year, the lecture grows—both in size and in spirit,” he said. “It’s connecting Perkins with new communities and rekindling ties with the university at large.”
Missed the lecture? Watch it here: John Greco – 2025 Abraham Lecture
