Abstract

Functional illiteracy has become in the last decades the technical term used to describe a reality in which a literate person fails to grasp the meaning of a text or to perform a basic analysis necessary for an effective personal and social development. Recent studies on this phenomenon are alarming since a significant percentage of Europeans although they consider themselves educated, do not know that they do not know. The main issue beyond the concept of functional illiteracy is the concept of knowing. Therefore, this study focuses on various aspects originating from epistemology to highlight that the dialogue between science and theology can be used to address this issue. This paper advocates that although the terminology per se used by scholars in the last four decades is not found in the Bible, the reality of such phenomena is to be found both in the Old and the New Testament. Biblical epistemology reflects a reality that transcends a naturalistic epistemology. Therefore, it is important to note that while functional illiteracy has a cognitive motivation, in the Bible spiritual functional illiteracy has a spiritual cause. Often scholars suggest the fact that scientific epistemology and biblical epistemology are inconsistent. However, focusing on the issue of functional illiteracy now and in the past, in our study of the nature of knowledge, it is reasonable to admit that a dialogue between epistemology and theology is crucial.