We've started a new class at church--The Truth Project. It's about getting back to a Christian worldview and reacting to postmodernism.
The thing that's most intriguing is that it takes on deep subjects head-on--ones the church often won't tackle within the congregation because they're afraid they'll scare people off by making them "think too much." So the topics are Ethics and Philosophy, Theology, Science, Sociology, Law, and Anthroplogy--I can't wait.
We watched the first video last week, which dealt with Truth, and whether there is Truth--which is, of course, so much a part of postmodernism. They had a "man-on-the-street" interview segment, which asked people about their ideas on Truth. The most interesting response was from a Universalist/Unitarian, who said that the world is a cathedral, and truth is the light coming through the windows, and everyone sees and interprets that truth differently. It seemed she was saying that because we all have different views, we can't call anything truth.
People chuckled every time she spoke, but I felt it was profoundly sad. This is the sort of wishy-washy, nonoffensive, politically correct junk the world loves to hear: "Now THAT'S a Christian I can sign on with." It was amazingly unbiblical! What about the call to be either hot or cold? What about the narrow path with few on it? What about the fact that we're labeled--by Jesus--as either a sheep or a goat? That's black and white. That's Truth.
Edit: Thanks to Drew for pointing out that I was less-than-clear on why the Unitarian's thoughts seemed sad to me. Since I'm going from memory, I fear I've understated her thoughts. As I understood her position, she felt that because we're seeing truth through our own perception, that we can't really call anything truth.
4 comments:
Were people chuckling because they agreed with her or thought she was looney-tunes? What did you find sad about it? Because as I interpert it, here is a Unitarian-Universalist (not known for being big on things like absolute truth) who seems to have picked up on something true.
To expand on that image, if "Truth" is the light outside, and the only way we can see that truth is in glimpses through window-panes, we can't really comprehend all truth -- only what we can understand with our limited human faculties.
C.S. Lewis once wrote that Truth was like a mirror shattered by the Fall. And because of the Fall, we can only see shards of truth -- we cannot get the whole picture. This woman seems to be using a similar metaphor to say that Truth exists; it's out there, but we are limited by our narrow windows of perception.
What am I missing here?
By the way, one of our Pastors told me that a couple people from church did training for this program last year. One really liked it, the other did not. I am still very interested.
I think I misstated--or understated--what she was saying (I'm going from memory).
It seemed to me she was saying that we can't call anything truth because we're all interpreting it differently.
I'm not saying we have all truth, the whole picture, or all the answers. But I think if we go too far that direction, we risk calling nothing truth.
Lewis' quote still affirms that there IS truth.
Yep. I agree with you there. Thanks for the clarification. Well, if I can ever get this program to our church, I'll give you my feedback!
Post a Comment