Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 153:612 (Oct 1996)
Article: Periodical Reviews
Author: Anonymous

BSac 153:612 (Oct 96) p. 480

Periodical Reviews

“Jesus’ Peculiar Truth,” William H. Willimon, Christianity Today, March 4, 1996, 21–22.

Willimon, dean of the chapel and professor of Christian ministry at Duke University, addresses “the increasing number of Christians who are decrying rampant moral and intellectual ‘relativism’“ by emphasizing the “objective, absolute truth” of Christianity. He questions whether this is the best strategy because “it fails to do full justice to the peculiar truth that is proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ” (p. 21). “Arguing that Christ and his way are ‘objectively true,’ we run the risk of deceiving people into thinking that they are already capable, just as they are, of thinking about these matters without first knowing Jesus, without conversion. That is why the gospel consistently avoids asking for mere intellectual agreement. Rather, what is demanded is conversion, detoxification, being born again” (p. 22).

Two things concern Willimon. First, he fears the depersonalization of the truth of Christianity. For the Christian, truth is ultimately not in statements, but in a person, the one God. Second, he fears the reduction of the gospel to a mental act of “data processing.” The call of the gospel is not merely to process information, but to trust a person. Willimon insightfully warns that processing data is an inadequate response to Jesus Christ.

This warning is not a call to subjectivism and to “create our own truth.” It is rather a warning against the dangerous aspects of an objective theory of truth that neglects the legitimately relational aspects of truth. “So, in a way, we Christians do believe that all truth is relative. All truth, all truthful living is relative to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus” (p. 22).

Willimon is correct about the ultimately personal character of truth (John 14:6). He is also correct that Christians can expend so much effort resisting subjectivism, with its denial of any external norm, that they forget that completely “objective” truth (as seen, for example, in Plato, Hegel, or logical positivism) can be just as destructive as rampant subjectivism. Truth is not self-existent, abstract, and impersonal like the Platonic forms but is dependent on the triune, personal God who is the Source of truth. Truth corresponds to (i.e., is related to) the knowledge, will, and acts of the God of truth.

Of course truth relates to reality outside the individual. But the

BSac 153:612 (Oct 96) p. 481

truth of the gospel requires a proper relationship to the One who is the truth, who created and governs all affairs in this world and the ne...