Emerging Lutherans

I think it’s time to kick things off in the blog world here at emerginglutherans.org…

So I’ll start with a conversation I had this week about truth and postmodernity.  Well, really truth claims and how that all gets sorted out in a postmodern context.  (Looking for a definition of postmodern?  Soon we’ll have definitions up on the Emerging 101 page here).

It’s a tough nut to crack, the notion of what is true when everything is seemingly up for grabs.  Does postmodernity allow us to slide into relativism (the notion that everything is true or good)?  Or are there bounds for what is true?  And perhaps most importantly, what does this all mean for the church?  How do we live out our faith in such a context?  How do we understand truth?  How do we talk about what is true and good when others may not consider it true or good (or have different truth claims)?

The conversation I had this past week tried to address all these questions (note the word tried), but there’s still plenty we’re trying to sort out.  And instead of trying to address all the same questions or recreate/summarize the conversation for you here, I will try to sort out my subsequent thoughts.

First, as a Christian I would affirm that there is absolute Truth (God), but that we as finite humans cannot possibly fully understand that Truth.  We all have different experiences and understandings that shape our perception of the Truth and therefore are always going to differ (even if slightly) on how we see/know/understand/talk about the Truth.  So here I would make a distinction between the Truth (Big T - God as infinite being and absolute Truth) and truth (little t - our finite understandings of God/absolute Truth).

So how do we live as Christians in relation to this?  Does our faith have the right to make truth claims (little t) to the world?  How do we speak to a world in which truth is understood differently by other people? In response, I think we live out our truth claims (we do this all the time, whether we are aware of it or not).  We cannot force another person to accept our truth as their truth, but by living into that which we believe to be true, we create a place where action and dialogue are possible.  It is in this space that there is an opportunity for truth claims to be shifted a bit and hopefully for a bit of the Truth to be revealed.  Therefore, we live in the truth that God is god and has a real interest in the world.

So then, what are the bounds for a true truth?  I would say pure love for every person on earth - that every person has value simply because they are human.  This love pursues what is good and right for the person and allows each to fully live.  Any truth that doesn’t do this is not a true truth.  For example, any truth that asserts one person is “lower” than another is not a true truth.  Each is equally valuable because they are both fully human.  Any truth that exploits one person over another is also not a true truth.  It is through the lens of love that we examine truth claims.

Well, I have more to write and probably  will at some point.  But I’ve put a lot down here and hopefully it begins to make sense…. what do you think?  I’d like to hear from you and maybe we’ll begin a conversation in the comments section below this post.

Kate