Torch, Spring 1998

This idea is prominent everywhere. Perhaps you have heard this response to your attempt to witness: "Well , Christianity may work for you , but that doesn ' t mean it will work for me." This is the essence of the contemporary theory of truth . You , in your particular context, have found that Christian ideas work for you ; they allow you to cope with life and thus you call them true. However, for someone else, with a different heritage, environment, and perhaps even a different culture, those Christian ideas may not be useful , and thus, they may be false (unworkable). If you have the audacity to suggest that all people ought to believe as you do , then you are naive (not recognizing the cultural differences between people) or dogmatic (claiming knowledge of reality as it is in itself-something you can' t do). Perhaps you are even outright dangerous (trying to force your nanow beliefs on everyone, regardless of differences). In any case, you are someone to be avoided. How do Christians respond to such ideas? First of all, it should be noted that the postmodern rejection of Modernism is legitimate. The desires for autonomy, perfection, and complete knowledge characteristic of the Modern period are desires for divinity ; the desires of creatures to be like God. This is the very sin for which Lucifer was cast out of Heaven (Isaiah 14:14), and the very sin with which he tempted Eve (Gen. 3:5). Postmodernists, even though not reasoning from a biblical basis, are correct in their rejection of the 8 Torch hould no tak the objectivity of the knower to ·mpl at ruth it elf is ub1ective. anogance and idolatry of the Modern era. Essentially, they are reminding us of the condition of fallen , finite human beings-a condition that Modem thinkers were all too happy to overlook. Secondly, we should recognize that our cultural context does indeed influence our thinking. We should be careful to note the difference between genuinely Christian ideas and those that are simply Western.We should also recognize the genuine cultural differences that may affect our ability to communicate the Gospel. Third, we must admit that even though not every universal truth claim leads to violence, there have been cases wherein such claims have led to violence on a large scale. We need only think of Hitler's universal view of a purified humanity, the Inquisition, or the Crusades to recognize this. In each of these instances, violence was used to eliminate or "convert" those who dared to question the universality of the truth claims being made by those m power. However, agreement with these observations does not require agreement with the scope of the contemporary position of truthles sness, for from these accurate, though limited, observations, current theorists draw unsupported conclusions. It is to these conclusions that we now must turn. The postmodern position allows only two choices in matters of truth : either you have complete truth, known with absolute certainty (truth as sought by the Modernists), or you have no truth at all (in the traditional sense of correspondence with reality) . Postmodemists then go on to point out that since absolutely certain truth is unattainable (for reasons already given), we are left with no truth. We must be content to live with truthlessness and abandon the search for timeless truth . In assessing this argument, we can agree with the second premise. As fallen, finite creatures, we cannot know truth in an absolutely certain fashion. We are not omniscient. However, we should not take the subjectivity of the knower to imply that truth itself is subjective. Our subjective inability to know a truth with complete certainty does not imply that such a truth does not objectively exist. If we recognize this distinction, we can see that agreeing with the second premise does not commit us to the conclusion because the first premise is false . It presents a false dichotomy. The two choices given are not the only choices available. There is a third option. We can know reality truly without knowing it exhaustively or completely ; this type continued on page 10