Tag: truth
-
Just Because You’re Cynical Doesn’t Mean People Aren’t Self-Interested
What does it mean that I disagree with this book enough to laugh out loud and spill my coffee? …
-
Reflecting on 1 Kings 22 15-23, 26-28
We are studying 1 Kings 22:15-23 and 26-28 for Sunday, May 2. This is the story of the final interaction between the prophet Micaiah and king Ahab of [the Northern kingdom of] Israel, and it’s a textbook example of the prophet as someone who “speaks truth to power.” Also, of the frankly political issues highlighted…
-
Studying 2 Kings 22 14-20
We are studying 2 Kings 22:14-20 for Sunday, March 21. This is the story of Huldah, the woman prophet, who authenticates the “book of the law” found in the Temple during the reign of [good] king Josiah of Judah. [Some questions on the texts are here.] Here are my notes on this text: BACKGROUND AND…
-
Truth or Consequences
I am old. Old enough to know that there are a lot of things I don’t know. But I have learned one thing by now: nothing good ever comes from lying. Nothing good comes in churches from lying about sexual misconduct. The people who think “the reputation of the church” – that is, the approval…
-
Cultivating that Same Mind
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Philippians 2:1-2 We get hung up, our pastor pointed out, when we think…
-
Hospitals in Our Area Are Awesome
I just saw one of those newspaper headlines that are designed to induce fear in humans, to exploit it for commercial purposes. I learned about that recently from Margo Aaron at That Seems Important, and now she is one of my heroes. So I thought I would mention this: that in our area, our local…
-
“Dumplin’” – A Big, Fat Pageant of Emotional Truth and Redemption
Dumplin’ is the most emotionally true film about being a fat girl I have ever seen. That means it’s excruciatingly painful – in all the right places, and in just the right ways. Because some of us have been exactly there, in that place, for that reason, and this film gets that place and that…
-
Baffled
Does it strike anyone else as wildly ironic that the very people who can’t go 45 seconds without announcing that they “believe in absolute truth” are among the staunchest supporters of a president who lies like he breathes? While the very people whose paradigm incorporates the social and discursive construction of reality are the most…
-
Getting Ready for World Religions
The small liberal arts university where I occasionally teach offers courses in “World Religions.” The discipline of Religious Studies questions the “world religions approach” these days, for good reasons, along with the very idea of “religion” as separate from things like “society” or “culture” or “knowledge,” but the courses are staples of the curriculum. So…
-
Epistemological Question
Wanted: help with contemporary epistemology! I think that the popular “correspondence” theory of truth has been more or less abandoned in thoughtful circles these days, replaced by things like “coherence” theories, assessed by criteria like “comprehensiveness.” I think I understand that, although I’m no expert. I think I partially understand the notion of “warranted true…
-
B(ook of Order F-3.010)4 Truth
I am studying for a test on Presbyterian Polity that is coming up in about a week, which explains why I was reading the Book of Order and ran across this “Historic Principle of Church Order” (F-3.01): Truth and Goodness That truth is in order to goodness, and the great touchstone of truth, its tendency…
-
Thinking about Revelation
We will be thinking about the concept of “revelation” in class this morning. It’s so foreign to most people these days that it’s hard to get students to see that there has ever been a significant conflict between revealed and empirical truth – despite the existence of the Creation Museum, etc.
Matters of Interpretation 