What Is Truth and What is Truth?
The question “What is truth?” has been asked throughout the centuries and continues to be. However, from a Christian point of view, “the truth” can be looked at in different ways.
The truth can be seen in the most general definition as a proposition (proposes a state of affairs about the universe usually in the format x is y) which either ‘obtains’ or ‘fails to obtain’ in reality. The proposition is the “truth-bearer” in communication and the actual state of affairs is the truth itself. Take these examples:
- A cat is an animal. (Obtains-reflects reality).
- There are less than 20 cars in the world. (Fails to obtain-does not reflect reality)
- Bill Clinton was a president of the United States. (Obtains-reflects reality)
A Christian would assert, in addition to all of the propositions that obtain for non-Christians (those above and trillions and trillions more), that
- Christ (God) is truth itself.
“The addition together of all propositions that obtain” describes God who is full act and no potency.
Now before you jump all over me and say, “Jon you just missed the point of what Pope Francis was speaking about – truth is a person, not an object,” consider that Christ claims to be the way, the truth and the life.
Christ is God. God is a person (this proposition requires another line of reasoning which I will leave out). God is the summary of all truth and the absence of all error. Like I said, God, a person is the absence of all error and the summary of all truth.
Then what does Pope Francis mean to communicate when he says that truth is not an object, but a person? Well actually its a very strong statement advocating Christianity. He is saying that though truth can be viewed as an object, doing so leaves out a proposition which changes the whole ball game–to possess the fullness of truth you must see the truth as the person of Christ.
Don’t worry no one will get mad at him, he’s supposed to say that, he’s the pope.
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