THE KNUCKLEHEAD
'
S GUIDE TO COVENANTAL THEOLOGY
61
How to Use Chapters 5 - 7
The four chapters you have just read are probably the most difficult
in this book. If you got through those, you can probably get through
anything, at least anything in this book.
Of course, the reason those first four chapters are so difficult is
precisely that they are the first four. I wasn't kidding when I told you
that you would literally be learning a new language in this book.
Especially considering how hard you have already worked, it is
probably a good idea for me to remind you why you are learning a new
language in the first place: that new language -- Fr. Keefe's language --
makes it much, much easier to think new thoughts.
Chapters 5 - 7 begin the process of introducing you to the kinds of
new thoughts that are available to people who learn the rudiments of
the new language outlined in Covenantal Theology.
However, don't get the idea that reading Chapters 5 - 7 is going to
be a walk in the park. It's a virtual certainty that you have only a
rudimentary grasp of Fr. Keefe's new language at this point, and in a
few pages I'll be asking you to deploy that somewhat shaky
understanding to think some really gigantic new thoughts.
As I said, Fr. Keefe thinks like a child, but not childishly. People
able to do that commonly develop language that is highly useful
toward the thinking of gigantic new thoughts.
Being able to think gigantic new thoughts is, of course, not always
immediately 'useful' to most people. That's not only because most
people quite rightly avoid gigantic new thoughts where possible, but
also because 'normal people,' no less than academics, vehemently
dislike giving up what they already 'know.' Nonetheless, being able to
give up large portions of what you already 'know' really does seem to
be one requirement for understanding Fr. Keefe's work.
So, as your understanding of Fr. Keefe's words increases, your
resistance to his ideas might actually increase also. The more you
understand just what he is saying, the crazier you may think he is.
Fr. Keefe's ideas may in fact be crazy. However, if this book is
successful, one of the things it will at least suggest to you is that,
although Fr. Keefe's ideas are crazy, your own current ideas (what you
already 'know') may actually be even crazier than his are. If science is
N.B. This is an html-ized copy of a page from the pdf file, The Knucklehead's Guide to Covenantal Theology.