Thanks Yaz and Lou for making the presence of God more apparent in Curious Thing...interesting it was you two who responded...
There isn’t much humour here…time for some reflection on the reality of truth and see whether anyone wants to take it up in conversation. First of all, the preacher: at church this morning (I was tired and irritable), Jonathan said in his sermon that it only takes a little but of truth for something to seem plausible. The crazies we can cope with. But those things which seem to contain truth, which seem to be rational, which have the right backing from the right sources, these things are more easily accepted to be true. The statement came in a bit about Peter’s declaration – he didn’t know the full truth and so ended up objecting to Jesus and being rebuked. He only had a bit of the truth. It seemed to be OK…but in fact it wasn’t.
Then the author: Dan Brown’s popularist Grail Quest (the Da Vinci Code) has a little bit of the truth. OK so there are lots of conspiracy theories out there. But there are also plenty of rational explanations. There is no need to tie up the Templars with the Rosicrucians with the Masons, with Da Vinci, Newton and Victor Hugo, (and with Swiss Banking???) and those who believe that behind it all is a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and about their offspring. And why, o why, o why did it have to be an American scholar who saves the day while the nasty eccentric Brit is the bad guy all along? (Oops, sorry if you haven’t read it yet!) A bit of the truth and it seems so tantalizingly acceptable. Isn’t it rationale that that horrible pyramid outside the Louvre is another attempt by the illuminati to publicise their idolatrous spirituality?
And the Bible scholar? Raf sent me a paper to read in which he makes a reference to batman at Buckingham Palace. Raf wants this, in the essay, to be a real reference to a real event – the Fathers 4 Justice protest the other week. But I said that even this real reference to a real event could only be interpreted. I mean, Batman wasn’t there. There was a man dressed up as batman. The pictures showed that he was protesting on the balcony outside the palace. But was Batman at Buckingham Palace? What is the truth? What is reality. How do you actually work out what is part of your own meaning circle, your own hermeneutic and what is actually part of reality.
Of course, everything is reality. My perception of reality is real. And as the Manics said – tell me your story and I’ll tell you mine. But all of our realities cannot be consonant with one another. Someone has to be wrong. We cannot simply accept that everyone’s reality is as real (true?) as everyone else’s. Dan Brown’s grasp of reality is either completely flawed or mine is. And in this contested zone of truth, who wins out in the end?
I think what I want to say is that our conflicted personalities are never wholly real until they become one with Truth – Christ. Now, that sounds kind of Buddhist. But what I mean is that since Jesus is the truth, our pilgrimage towards Jesus is a pilgrimage towards truth. In the words of the hymn – less of me, more of Jesus…less of unreality, more of Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus, our focus on him, our exploration of the Jesus tradition through bible studies, research, and our witness to the tradition of the last two thousand years (and behind that the whole Jewish witness to Yahweh’s grace), our retelling of the story of God’s gracious dealing with humanity. All of that is a pilgrimage towards Truth. Until then, we see only through a glass darkly, on then will we see face to face.
Pete
Reality and Truth, that's a hard one. I'm not much of a philosopher but I'll give it a go!
I'm not sure I can equate reality with truth so easily. I certainly wouldn't think of myself as not really real even if I know I don't have a total grasp of the truth.
As I understand it, reality is about whether something exists. Truth is more about understanding, knowledge and authenticity.
My understanding of the manic's "this is my truth, tell me yours" is that it really is just a kind of shorthand for "I'm pretty sure I know the truth and I know you feel the same way and those two 'truths' seem to contradict one another but we could either argue about it till kingdom come and make enemies of each other or we could sit and listen to each other's stories and respect each other's point of view so lets do that. It's probably more fun and in the end we'll probably find out we're closer than we thought." So I do think that Jesus is the truth (and the way and the life too) and I will try and persuade others of that truth and I will work towards understanding it better myself. But I'm not going to stop listening to other people's versions of the truth, because they may well have found something I've missed.
I think (but I'm not entirely sure) that a real reference to a real event is interpreted, but it is possible to interpret it consistently and authentically isn't it?
Oh and I agree the Da Vinci book was very very silly. Actually, in some cases, the opposite of what you said is true too - once you know one so called fact is completely wrong, you seriously doubt all the rest. I knew incredibly little about the knights templar or Da Vinci, but once I'd come across a few glaring errors (dead sea scrolls - Christian??) I began to doubt the whole lot!
Posted by: lou | October 01, 2004 at 03:48 PM