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The extent to which they see humans as being on the "inside" of language has significant
implications for theology, especially for the possibilities of receiving special revelation, and for
truly knowing God. For if the relationship of language and world is quite close, then it seems
that humans cannot escape their language, no matter how God may try to break through and give
special revelation. If that is the case, then Christians cannot know God as He is; rather, they
must construct God according to how they use their language. If that is the case, then they are
relegated to the internally contradictory position of committing idolatry. Yet, Grenz and Franke
have a readily available solution: they assume that God can and does get through Christians'
language, since the Holy Spirit speaks to the church today. By this contention, they apparently
maintain a point of contact with a God's eye view of "reality," which is what special revelation
should be all about.
This is a natural, attractive answer; even so, I will argue that it will fail due to their strong
internal relationship of a given language and its world. Furthermore, Grenz and Franke go to
great lengths to tell their readers many things that they should believe; for instance, that
foundationalism is dead; that there is no universal epistemic vantage point; that theology is, in a
fundamental sense, a linguistic task; etc. In these and other assertions, they seem to believe that
they are not just constructing an alternative theology; rather, they believe they are setting straight
several critical theological positions. But I also will argue that claims such as these presuppose
what Grenz and Franke deny namely, an epistemic access to an extra-linguistic, unconstructed
reality. And if that is the case, then quite simply, their view begs the question.
Grenz and Franke's Core Presuppositions
Grenz and Franke aim to spell out the contours of appropriate theological methodology,
given our living in a postmodern context, and through this process, we may see their own