所謂 empirical knowledge

從英文原文中會比較敏銳地看出來，林貝克原來十分強調他的理論的經驗意義 empirical-ness 或客觀性 objectivity 。

在pp. 99-102 四頁裡， empirical 一詞出現了至少十一次。

1. One advantage of stressing the resemblance of doctrinal to grammatical decisions is that this makes it possible to give the doctrine of infallibility of partly empirical meaning (p. 99).
2. In exploring further the empirical meaning that can be given to infallibility on this approach, we shall ask who or what can be appealed to as most nearly infallible in grammatical and, by transference, doctrinal matters (p. 99).
3. This demand for competence is the empirical equivalent of insisting the Spirit as one of the tests of doctrine (p. 100).
4-5. The reliability of their agreement in doctrinal matters may not improperly be called infallible. This suggestion is intended as an empirical description, not as an affirmation of faith... A virtually unanimous and enduring agreement among flexible yet deeply pious mainstream Muslims throughout the world on some at one time disputed point of Koranic doctrine would constitute empirically indisputable evidence from a detached, non-Muslim scholarly point of view that the doctrine is not in contradiction to the inner logic of Islam (pp. 100-101).
6-8. Nevertheless, as in the case of grammar, a kind of unshakable empirical certitude is theoretically available and asymptotically approachable even in reference to previously unsettled doctrinal questions. There is nothing odd about this, for we have similar certainties regarding other types of empirical knowledge, such as laws of mechanics, motion, and gravity, not to mention the sun always rising in the east... It is not psychologically or rhetorically strange to say that these principles, even when imperfectly formulated, are infallible and infallibly known. There is no reason for denying a similar certitude to religious doctrines. They also, given a cultural-linguistic approach, are matters of empirical knowledge (p. 101).
9. In reference to certitude, the question is whether an empirically describable variety, however strong, is religiously sufficient (p. 101).
10. Do not believers depend on the infallible testimony of the Holy Spirit, or of Scripture, or of the magisterium, rather than on an empirically based confidence that the consensus fidelium cannot mortally err (p. 101)?
11. Reason and nature, empirical certitude and the assurance of faith - these are not sharply divided, watertight compartments (p. 102).

1-2, 4-8和11裡說的 empirical knowledge ，正是社會科學研究員有興趣的那類研究資料，即主流信仰群體的共同（大多數）信念，對他們而言，那就是教義，管它如何古怪或不符合該信仰群體的宗教傳統。稱之為 certain 的 knowledge 是沒問題的，因為對社會科學來說，這就是raw data ，若它們不是certain 的，就做不成研究了。不過，把那個 empirical knowledge 的certitude 比喻為如同自然律般確鑿是不恰當的。社會科學需要raw data 做研究，但這不等於那些 raw data 要有自然律或自然科學知識般的 certitude 。

在3, 9-10 ，林貝克談論為甚麼這樣一個好像是歷史偶然的主流信仰群體的共同（大多數）信念有資格超越聖靈、聖經、和教會領袖的判斷，可決定甚麼教義才合乎基督教。在他的回應裡，特別是他批評這質疑是基於錯誤神學思想、認為主流信仰群體的“屬人”的決定其實就是上帝憑其恩典給予人的意旨時，他似是認同了以下思想：“歷史裡的主流教會所作的，都是真理的彰顯，這是聖靈的工作。”