I’ve been listening to a lot of apologetics lately. I’m almost done with C. S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”, and I’ve heard quite a few debates as well. Today, I moved a bit more in the direction of philosophy when I listened to Douglas Groothuis’ lecture on “What Philosophers wish Theologians knew about Philosophy”. I felt very stimulated by this, especially when he pointed out the clashes between modernity and postmodernity.

“Christianity is a series of truth claims, claims about reality. Now, a lot of Christians today when they look at spiritual beliefs will make them contingent, particular and relative. […] There is a sad and dangerous tendency among some evangelicals to lapse into nonrealism. Realism is the doctrine that the world exists independently of ourselves and is, in some respects, knowable. As I read Scripture, Christianity is deeply committed to realism about truth. […] Scripture is committed to the proposition that truth, the most important truths, are knowable, are reachable. And where I think Christian Philosophers can contribute to this discussion is to argue against various form of nonrealism. Or constructivism. This [constructivism] says that truth is a construct of language in our communities and it comes out of various contingencies, and to say that any proposition is true absolutely, universally and objectively is […] kind of an epistemological ethnocentrism. You take your sense of knowing a reality and project it on the universe falsely… And it’s vital for the Christians in the West to articulate a clear, cogent, compelling understanding of truth. […] We need to give an account of truth. If we don’t, everything we say will go through a postmodernist grid with people, a nonrealist grid.”

Apparently, Groothuis has actually written a book in which he defends the realist take on truth in relation to Christianity. It’s called “Truth decay” and they have it in the library at my university. (Too bad, I’m leaving in two weeks and I won’t have time to read it before then.)

I always believed there was one universal and objective truth. The Bible makes universal, objective claims. And I’m annoyed whenever people try to soften my language and encourage me to only speak of my beliefs as “my truths” or “truths for me” or in some other way emphasize that they’re “only mine beliefs”. Sometimes, I’m actually, most deliberately, making statements concerning truth for all people. Christianity does that. The prophets and the apostles did that. So should we, despite the postmodernist norms that have weakened our preaching of the true Gospel.