The Epistemic Significance of the work of the Holy Spirit

 "I am convinced that the epistemic significance of the work of the Holy Spirit is mostly a matter of aligning our discernment and belief with those of the Christian tradition. This happens, typically, not by revealing separate beliefs to us, one at a time, but rather by illuminating the Christian community or tradition as the locus of God's activity in the world...The individual's experience with the Holy Spirit is only one very small part of the process by which the truths of the Christian faith are revealed, even to that individual. His confidence in the truth of the relevant beliefs involves the implicit confidence that the Holy Spirit has been active, revealing important truths to the Christian community for a very long time. "

--Caleb Miller, "Faith and Reason"

And this is where Christianity diverges from the American approach to faith. We Americans presuppose that the individual experience must define all of significance. (And we know the source of that idea.) So tradition is only valuable to the degree that it reinforces someone's individualized experience of God. This is the starting point for any conversation in the American church.

--Brad Boydston