Truth decay?

Let’s think a little more about the suggestion that the church abandon its insistence that it alone knows universal, objective truth. This does not mean there is no truth. Jesus said "I am the ..truth..." Rather we stop claiming that we and no one else knows it. Its a matter of humility at worst. I know the fear that says that if we do this we will be left with nothing. I have felt this fear, although lately I have been thinking what a marvelous opportunity God has given us. We repeat our truth endlessly and the world is no longer listening. We have all this knowledge – and not much else as part of our Christianity. Accepting a new way of looking at the world, giving up our rational arguments allows us to consider new ways of reaching out to the world, new ways of church practice, new ways of looking at the gospel and working it out in our lives. And as we shall see, "truth" will still be honored.

Post-modern Christians acknowledge that the Christian story which cannot be “proven”, cannot be imposed on a diverse nation where there are other communities each with their claims of knowledge and morality. Only a few people will respond to our message if we fail to understand this. Where there is no longer a common set of beliefs, we are not credible when we demand that our story be the only acceptable story.

To be credible we must first acknowledge that faith precedes belief. Isn't this what the Bible has said all along ("It is by grace you are saved through faith…")?We hold to what we believe because we believe God has gifted us by His grace. We have no intellectual superiority that allows us to demand that others believe what we do, or condemns them if they do not.. This humility has a wonderful levelling effect. Where we start with this admission we can we can expect that those communities holding to other creeds do the same. In other words, post modernism has provided a level playing field and our meta-narrative is no longer excluded from the marketplace of ideas. Science, reason and all the other "isms" are no longer in power. Non-believers cannot claim that there is no truth, then claim as a truth that Christianity is nonsense.

Secondly we must understand that post-modernists are looking to communities to find knowledge and morality. (This in fact was the downfall of the meta-narrative claimed by science, which claimed to be supported by a universal community of reason, when no such community existed in reality.) What is vital then, for the Christian message to be accepted, is not to continually propound a set of propositional truths, but rather to be a community in which we live our story, telling it from its beginnings and position ourselves in it in the present. We stop offering religious ideas. Spiritual knowledge can be found in our narrative, our story as a community of faith. James K. A. Smith in his book calls the thinking and practice that flows out of this, “radical orthodoxy”. We ground our community of belief in God's history. We recount our ancient Biblical stories from Genesis to Revelation, sing our ancient songs and hymns of victory, continue historic practices and rites such as baptism, communion, etc. and symbols that remind us of our heritage. I believe we also honor historical men and women of faith, as well as look to our spiritual ancestors of all denominations for wisdom. And at the same time we make the story contemporary by positioning ourselves in the narrative. The story in which we participate is ongoing; it is past, present and future. We do this through the use of contemporary music, media, present day illustrations. We use the arts and stories of participation in this grand story which motivate, challenge and bring the story to life. We stop talking in propositions and celebrate the mystical nature of a relationship with God. The disciplines and practices of fasting, prayer etc. are offered as aspects of participation and are not merely matters of personal habit and growth. God's story, and our part in it as a community is both historical and contemporary. It is transcendent and practical. It is about God’s unfolding love of mankind which includes a role for us.

BUT ALL OF THIS MEANS NOTHING if we do not act out our role in the story, actually living as representatives of a community of love and justice, when we leave church. This is what will communicate truth to our post-modern world. We abandon pretensions to absolute knowledge or certainty, but we don’t give up on knowledge altogether. We confess our beliefs, but acknowledge that it is the result of revelation (faith imparted by the Holy Spirit) and therefore there may be other perspectives and interpretations. Then we live what we believe. We become a people of doing and not just listening and thinking and talking.

I saw a church sign the other day. It said “Avoid truth decay. Read your Bible daily”. I thought it was well-intentioned but unsatisfactory. It means nothing to most of the world. Truth (as a concept)is dead as far as they are concerned, and I think we Christians helped kill it. We claimed to have the answer to living the abundant life, then carried on living no differently than everyone else. So maybe it's time to recognize the obvious. In the end our concern is not with truth anyhow, but rather with belief. I say, "Avoid belief decay. Live your Bible daily". Someone might be attracted to a life of passion, adventure and integrity!