So, the postmodern critique of modernity basically says that "truth" is in the hands of whoever is in power, and "truth" itself is manipulated by those in power to stay in power. That wasn't said very well, but basically what's "true" is whatever the person with the best weapons or most money says. This has lead some to believe that there is no truth, or no absolute truth. It seems like the prevailing attitude towards truth of my generation. I have been told many times to "believe what you want to believe" or "that's true for you."
Most Christians have tended to freak out whenever the suggestion is made that there is no absolute truth, and have fallen back to modernism to prove it. How can you call a line crooked unless you know what a straight line is?
But, I think that argument misses the point. What's the point of a straight line if someone makes it into a sword and enslaves you with it?
I'm dissatisfied with both.
My point is this: Truth exists, but if something that in fact is true is used for manipulation, power, and control it ceases to be true. Truth and love are so deeply intertwined with each other that I believe they can never be separated.
That's why the truth of the cross of Jesus Christ is quite possibly the only true thing ever. That's why I could care less about American ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. None of that means anything! It's all just rhetoric. That's why killing someone for something you believe, to me, proves that what you believe isn't true!
How would it change the face of Christianity in politics and in history if the truth we live and die for is truth like the cross is truth? How would it deeply shake the foundation of our lives?
So, truth is dying to yourself and living for Christ. Truth is sacrificial love. Truth is laying down your life for your friends and your enemies. Nothing true can ever be used for earthly gain. There could never be two things farther apart that truth and manipulation.
I'll leave you with something N.T. Wright said at the lecture he gave last semester at Gordon-Conwell:
"Truth does not come out of a checkbook or a gun."
I'm sure my argument is full of holes. Please help me find them. Especially all my philosopher and theologian friends out there. This thought is a work in progress, and very new to me. But I have to go now, but I wanted to share it before I left for the weekend. I'm going to a place called Rakai that is right near Rwanda and is in the southern hemisphere. PEACE!
4 comments:
Hey Chuck. Well I'll add my politics major/theological opinion to it.
First off, well said! I really like this post.
Second, I don't think it's fair to imply American or liberal-democratic ideals are meaningless because they are so frequently distorted or abandoned. The same freedoms of speech and religion that people use to malign others and show prejudice are fundamental parts of the joy of fellowship and mission. You can challenge me on that too - since you invited challenges yourself!
But consider this: we hold that Christ is freely accepted, freely rejected. Of course, regardless of any human's decision to believe in him as the Truth, HE IS THE TRUTH. But do we appropriate that for ourselves in the here and now? The Kingdom is here. And accepting and living that out as "true for you" makes ALL the difference for your salvation.
Thus I believe there is divine truth and objectivity involved in the liberalism of self-determination. You're not going to force Christ upon me - I'll allow that Christ himself could force himself upon me - but I will relativize the Truth to be "my Truth" - and thus I earn a testimony, and my testimony is my greatest argument for the real Truth, even if athiests won't buy my personal experience as objective.
Was I confusing? I think I was. Sorry! Hope you got the main point. To sum up: I think political/democratic liberalism mustn't be thrown out the door. I think God has instilled divine realities and truths into many different socio-political structures and traditions - liberal, conservative, totalitarian, and others. Self-determination happens to be one of my favorite.
I'm no philosopher or a theologian, but I'm sure in PL101 and BI101, they tell you that everyone is a philosopher and everyone is a theologian because everyone has an opinion on the matter. Besides, I'm a lover of wisdom, and I seek to understand the word of God.
I think we live in a time when everyone (especially young people) is looking for truth but afraid to admit that there may be an absolute truth. Quite a contradiction, huh? I still don't understand young people.
People want to live for something, but what if that something actually holds a lot of meaning, or ultimate meaning. People aren't ready for that, or at least they think they aren't.
This is why people take truth (God), as if it were a jar of play-doh, and they press it through their mold to make it a dinosaur, a hamburger, or whatever makes them happy about themselves. Then they take the rest of the play-doh, the part that the mold peeled off, and they put it back in the jar and admire their creation.
Translation: people take what they like about God and throw out the rest. They are fine with what they have and fine with what you have. Just don't make them play with the dinosaur that you molded.
To say that there is no absolute truth is to make an absolute statement about truth. Any descent philosopher or theologian knows that.
Google Christian Smith (he's a Gordon grad and now professes at Notre Dame) and "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism," and you'll see what God is made out to be.
I love you, Charles.
My favorite modern theologian says that in the Incarnation the Truth condescended to become a truth. This doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't remain the Father's Truth. He does. But it means that the Father's Truth is now 'veiled' in the flesh of a Jewish rabbi who was crucified in the 1st century by the Roman political authorities - and that his Truth is revealed most gloriously its darkest moment of hidden-ness. Which is to say: the Jew nailed to the cross is the Logos of the Father, who makes the Father known. And that means that God is love. Self-sacrifical love.
Which is exactly what you said in your post!
Does this mean there isn't Truth? No. Of course not. It means, as you say, that our only possible 'witness' to this truth is by entering into it before the eyes of the world.
The crusader who shouted 'Jesus is Lord' as he drove his sword through a Muslim's skull - did he believe in the truth? Did he bear the truth witness?
The trick is that the crusader's 'confession' was both 'true' in a sense, but also horribly, horribly false. Because Jesus is the Lord who reigns from the tree. And we cannot speak this truth without hanging there with him. That is frightening, but it is the truth.
To put that slightly differently: the world doesn't give a damn about absolute truth. But it cannot deny the truth of absolute love. If only we would show them! We must show them! We must show ourselves.
Peter, you are probably right to remind Chuck of some of the good things brought about by liberal democracy. But I think you should also consider some of its more deleterious elements. The greatest being, that democracy is identical to the idolization, the sovereign enthronement, of the individual will. Of 'choice.' And that is a very dangerous thing. In fact, I would argue that it is demonic.
Now, the reverse extreme of collectivism is not the solution either. I wonder Chuck if you have seen some of the down-sides of the communitarian sensibilities of the Ugandan people?
St Paul teaches the truth of human political organization in 1 Cor 12: a judicious middle way between the two extremes if there ever was one. The church, I think, has to live this alternative 'politics' before the eyes of the world. It is the politics of the Kingdom, of the City of God which has foundations. And for that very reason, it is the truth which will set men free.
Free as democracy can never make him. Because democracy teaches the exultation of his will, his choice, his pursuit of happiness howsoever he may choose to define it. But the 'body-politics' which St Paul outlines in 1 Cor 12 teaches man to put his will to death. Only thus will he be able to be raised up again in the power of the Spirit, to live the life that is truly life as one member of the catholic body of the Son of God.
But now we've come back around to what I started with, what Chuck I think perfectly described in his post. And that is, that Truth is self-offering love.
Thank you very much for your comments brothers. I don't think I meant to completely deride America, but rather the faith that people put in America.
Uganda isn't exactly purely communitarian either. There is definitely the concept of the individual, and of individual ownership, but it is not the default thought. The default is always towards the community.
I think this whole discussion has shed new light on "the truth will set you free" for me. Truth is a whole lot more freeing if it is freed from the falsehood of manipulation and understood from the viewpoint of self giving love.
Peace y'all.
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