Truth and Post Truth

What is truth?

If we Christian writers are asked what business we are in, I think we should reply, ‘the truth business.’ No matter what we write, even if it is fiction and therefore not ‘true’ in the most literal sense, we are always trying to reflect things as they really are. This is in itself a valuable ministry, and it is actually a species of witness, for a witness is a person who reflects something as it really is or was.

Our Lord told Pontius Pilate that he had come to bear witness to the truth, in other words, to reflect to human society things as they really, ultimately are. Pilate’s reply ‘what is truth?’ shouldn’t be automatically be taken as dismissive. It’s actually rather penetrating. We know what ‘the truth’ signifies: it means the array of things that are true, the things of God, ultimately unknowable but mediated in assimilable form by Jesus. But it’s worth thinking about what ‘truth’ without the ‘the’ means.

The earliest meanings of ‘true’ and ‘truth’ (in English) were not to do with propositions of fact. They were to do with faithfulness. The noun ‘truth’ has virtually lost this sense, but the adjective ‘true’ still has it. When you are true to a person, it means you are faithful to them. You are (in the modern idiom) ‘there for them’, you stick by them, you stick up for them. 

Truth and faithfulness

Now, it’s very dangerous to appeal to the earliest meaning of a word to claim that this is the word’s real meaning: it’s known as the ‘etymological fallacy’. But I think that in the case of ‘true’ and ‘truth’ we are on firm ground. ‘Truth’ as we generally use it today is, in a real sense, a subset of ‘truth’ as it was originally envisaged. If the older ‘truth’ was faithfulness of any kind (to your friend, your partner, your master, God, etc.), the current ‘truth’ is a subspecies of this. It is the faithful correspondence between the facts out there and your statement or representation of them. If you saw the Lord in the garden on Sunday morning and you affirm that you did, your statement is a faithful statement.

Jesus is the faithful witness because he accurately reflects the ultimate reality. He is the image of the eternal God. We as Christians in turn aspire to reflect something of the actuality of Jesus in our own lives; and as Christian writers we aim to reflect things as they really are, including the inadequate insights that we have of God as he really is. So we are in the ‘faithfulness business’ — but it’s more than a ‘business’, it’s our whole life and calling. For Christian writers, then, the ‘truth business’ is a specific aspect of that overall calling. 

A culture of untruth

But what, as Christians, do we do when we find ourselves inside a culture of unfaithfulness? I hardly need say that this has always been a challenge to Christians in business, because there have always been corners of business where lying and cheating have been practised and tolerated. And what do we do as Christian writers when we are inside a culture of untruthfulness?

On the whole, public affairs, in most of my lifetime, held to the Christian, and universal, ideals of truthfulness and honesty. There were, of course, improbable boasts and broken promises, but the standard of truth was generally respected. There was an agreed minimal level of faithfulness, so you could rely, to a reasonable degree, keeping your eyes open of course, on what people of power and prestige said.

But what does a Christian, and in particular a Christian writer, whose business is truth, do in this present, sadly changed climate: the world of what is sometimes foolishly called ‘post-truth’, as if truth could become outdated?

Be not partakers

I expect there are differing opinions about this, but I would like to put before you the words of St Paul:

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret; but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.

It’s important to note that the ministry of exposure is not intended to be partisan, punitive, or vindictive: its aim is prayerful, that those in darkness may partake of the light, that evildoers may be delivered:

Therefore it is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.’

But the warning to us is:

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.

The days are indeed very evil right now. It is wisdom to recognize that — to recognize that powerful people in positions of responsibility and leadership are involved in the works of darkness, especially lying and cheating, as well as bribery, adultery, and abuse. Lying is especially serious, because the abandonment of truth-speaking leads to the destruction of trust, which is the bond of society.

Just before this, Paul writes:

Therefore do not associate with them, for once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.

The KJV says ‘be not ye therefore partakers with them’. I think ‘partaking’ includes giving them support with your money, your advocacy, or your vote. To support liars is to participate in falsehood.

I hope I won’t be censured for straying into what appear to be political matters. I believe that these are matters way above mere politics. There is a spiritual invasion by the forces of darkness into our shared public life. This is of crucial importance to all Christians, and especially to those whose business is the business of truth.