What do you do with Holy Spirit encounters?
Christians, I think, should be skeptical of claims that God has revealed himself in some private, extra-biblical fashion—think of Sarah Young’s “Jesus Calling” books, for instance, or the wave of “visits to heaven” titles that crested at some point in the previous decade. And yet, it seems like a mistake to wave away all stories of divine encounters as products of deception or self-delusion. In his book Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God: The Evidential Force of Divine Encounters, Harold Netland of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School explores the philosophical and theological grounds for receiving such stories open-mindedly. Travis Dickinson, professor of philosophy at Dallas Baptist University, spoke with Netland about his book. “Experience, all by itself, will not produce Christian belief,” says Netland. “But I think there are cases in which a person who has a particular experience can be justified in believing certain things even without being able to provide compelling r