What is Truth? # 1

Toward a Biblical Understanding of Truth for Postmodern Times Truth is stranger than it used to be![1] Postmodernism has brought about a radicalization of the nature of truth. The truthfulness of truth has been dissected by the scalpel of postmodernism and little of anything has been left.[2] Many are found rejoicing that there is no longer any objectivity or absoluteness to truth and that it lays ravaged by postmodernism.[3] Others decry the postmodern decay of truth and seek to offer an alternative.[4] Where should Christians seeking to be Biblical stand on this matter? Must we agree with the postmoderns that truth is dead or should we fall back onto the foundationalism of modernism? More poignantly to paraphrase Pilate, “What is truth for this postmodern age?”

The following few posts will seek to answer that question. A course will be charted between the Scylla of modernism’s foundationalist truth and the Charybdis of postmodernism’s destruction of truth. Christianity offers an alternative paradigm on the nature of truth. The goal of this paper will be to examine the Biblical teaching of truth as found in the Gospel of John. First, it will be shown that the nature of truth is founded upon the Trinitarian God of Christianity and His Word. Secondly, it will be argued that the possibility of the knowledge of truth is founded on the nature of Scriptural truth. Thirdly, given the nature and knowability of truth there follows an oughtness of truth, which will be set forth. These three elements or perspectives on truth stand together as a construction of the biblical notion of truth.[5] Lastly a few applications to the postmodern situation will be set forth in seeking an alternate Christian paradigm.

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[1] J. Richard Middleton and Brian J. Walsh. Truth is Stranger That It Used to Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995.

[2] For a detailed examination of this shift see the following: D. A. Carson. The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996. David S. Dockery. Ed. The Challenge of Postmodernism: An Evangelical Engagement. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1995. Millard J. Erickson. Truth or Consequences: The Promise and Perils of Postmodernism. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001. Gene Edward Veith, Jr. Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994. Stanley J. Grenz. A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996. Also see any other works by Grenz.

[3] Philip D. Kenneson. “There’s No Such Thing as Objective Truth, and It’s a Good Thing, Too.” In Timothy R. Phillips and Dennis L. Okholm. Christian Apologetics in the Postmodern World. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1995. 155-172.

[4] Douglas Groothuis. Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.

[5] My indebtedness to John Frame will be evident throughout this paper even when not directly cited. It is the hope of this paper to add some Biblical meat to his theological arguments. By this I mean adding more of an exegetical flavor to the argument through an understanding of truth as found in the Gospel of John. See his The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 1987 for a thorough Biblical epistemology.