communal discernment - my favorite redundancy, and it applies in science, philosophy & religion b/c, in my approach, at least, epistemology is epistemology is epistemology (contra any notion of, for example, a religious epistemology vs other types). This is not to say that there is no such phenomenal experience as "hearing from God" but, even then, the individual will be processing (chewing & digesting) it through (self-critical) lenses provided during formation in community & the fruits of same (or lack thereof) are subject to the prudential & theological judgments of community (another source transcendent of one's mere self). We don't want to deny signs & wonders, which may be proleptic realizations of what may some day be an eschatological fullness but we want to resist the tendency to sensationalize them in a way that devalues the splendor of the ordinary and the stupefaction we should all be experiencing in every waking (and dreaming) moment at the ... the ... the ...
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