The Christian claim to know God must be received through the intuitive, pragmatic, and rational/reflective channels. Yandall Woodfin contends, "Even though knowledge of God, according to Christian belief, is possible only by a gracious quickening and illumination of the human spirit through the immediate personal presence or God, this knowledge, as long as man remains a creature in time and space will be mediated through experience." (Woodfin, With All Your Mind, 27) In other words, in this issue of epistemology, one cannot rest at ease in the mystical conclusions, since these even mystical experience must come to us through experience and rationality or reason.
It should also recognized that we are talking about the individual's knowledge of God and not knowledge of things about or characteristics of God. Woodfin considers our knowledge of God in terms of a "friendship" or "trust among persons." (Woodfin, With All Your Mind, 27) It is important to recognize that while God is "suprapersonal" according to Woodfin, God is never "subpersonal" and must be grasped by human beings as personal, at least according to Christian faith.
I develop trust in individuals (though it is harder these days than in the past) through a subjective intuitional awareness of the individual which tells me whether an individual is trustworthy or not, through a pragmatic test of examining their charater, behavior and conduct toward others which gives me insight as to their level of trustworthiness, and through the use of rationality/reflection which assists me in determining that my trust in another individual is a rational or reasonable thing to give.
