What is Truth? Post-Christianity and Metaphysics Pt 1

Hello Everyone,

I have been thinking a lot on Pilot’s question to Jesus, albeit a few weeks early for the liturgical calendar.

“Quid est veritas?”

“What is truth?”

The question Jesus claimed to answer with his life and death.

A question that Biblical scholars claim Pilate asked in jest.

What is truth? Can we ever really know? Is it a fool’s errand to even ask? If one is looking for truth, how do we even begin to find it, and, more importantly, begin to define it?

I’m taking off on what I wrote about last week, “Divine Deficits,” and what to do with questions that we so desperately want answered but are, perhaps, unanswerable.

This week I found myself being asked similar questions. First by a podcast interview I did and then by a close friend here in Rugby.

The podcast interview I did was interesting. It was with the host of the Transcendent Psychotherapist. He had a real thing for metaphysics. While he acquiesced to the ontology or being of god as person as unviable, he wouldn’t move on from the term metaphysics at a meta level. Essentially vying for an understanding of reality that includes a first things scenario, unexplainable activity in terms of energy and force, and a bit of ontology as becoming which is Process Theology.

You can watch it here.

As most of you know I don’t concern myself with metaphysics but a lot of people do. Playing into the addiction to know, there has to be more than just what we can see. There has to be a structure and a connectedness to it all. Those who are proponents of metaphysics in the classical sense, who will live and die by it, call anything else (theology post-metaphysics) pretentious and arrogant. Meaning it is arrogant to suppose an interpretation of reality and meaning that doesn’t include a discussion of metaphysics. To go even further, that it is a metaphysical act to even speak of reality; a reality that we can’t ever properly interpret and that our language is a mere representation of.

While I can hack these conversations because I am philosophically trained, I am wholly uninterested in them. Back in the day I felt a real need to rise to the occasion of some of these questions. Even though they weren’t of incredible interest to me, I thought it only right to engage. But that was the wrong decision and I learned and readjusted my responses.

Also, the most loving and kind thing I can do in these conversations is be myself; to be honest and authentic, and to not compromise the integrity of what I think, if the question asker is truly after my opinion in the matter.

So, last week when my sweet friend asked me a question on behalf of someone who asked her to ask me, I had to respond honestly, but also in a way that would be of no satisfaction to her question.

The query on the table was if I think there is a Truth. Truth with a capital T. Is there Truth that is out there, that we should be looking for, outside of space and time, that always was, that is waiting to be discovered to offer us better answers for life and how we should live?

There are ways to say ‘yes’ to this question and nuance it in such a way that makes us feel better about seeing through a glass dimly lit.

There are ways to say ‘no’ to this question and include the caveat of meaning-making within our own realities of community and relationality, so that that ‘no’ part doesn’t really matter.

But my answer was and is as follows,

“I have zero opinion on that. This is of no interest or matter to me.”

Disappointed and dumbfounded with my answer our conversation went on for another hour or so. More questions ensued, but from me. Well, how would you be living differently if there was such a Truth? What would it change for you? Do you think such Truth would be so hidden from all of humanity for its whole history? Do you know what Gnosticism is and how this resembles it? Let’s talk from a Biblical point of view—let’s talk about Paul in 2 Corinthians as he makes fun of other mystical and super spiritual contemporaries by telling a sardonic story of how he was caught up in the third heaven and was whispered things too high for any mortal so he couldn’t possibly say.

But in the end, I wanted to make it clear that I very much care about this conversation. And that me answering with the fact that I have little to no opinion on such matters isn’t meant to shrug off something that I know if of very important interest to her. It is simply me taking everything I have ever come to know, not know, and unknow in such matters and deliver to her the years of toiling that have brought me to this moment.

“I have no opinion on this and it is of no consequence to me.”

The transformation piece is in the follow up reply of “here’s why…

It is there we can have real conversations of what any of this is trying to do. Whether we name it “God” or “Universe,” or “Truth”, or “Collective Consciousness”, or any other word or phrase that suits you better than “God” but somehow is still needed because we still need that “God” place to be filled. We deceive ourselves if we think otherwise.

We don’t always have the level of self-awareness that lets us in on our own defense mechanisms when it comes to our existential angst and fear. We are more than happy to move on from a mighty God as long as we can keep our metaphysics. We talk about how great it is to live in the uncertainty simply because we have moved past the sky God. But we need that vacancy filled so things still make sense. Essentially what we have done is taken our epistemological frameworks, how we acquire knowledge and add to our interpretive lens, and moved them on. Being post-Christian is about shaking up our epistemology a bit and sort of turning it on its head. It is about subverting it. It is about rethinking everything. We can’t simply use our same old knowledge and meaning-making mechanisms as we continue on in new pursuits. When we ask the Truth with a capital T question we are asking the same questions and hoping for bigger answers. But the whole point is to ask new questions. And that is where we get tripped up.

I visited the YouTube page where the aforementioned podcast video lives and there were a few comments. All having to do with metaphysics.

One question which I found particularly offensive read as follows,

“I'm still waiting for a clear explanation for how this nominally post metaphysical discourse is vindicated in its pretensions. So far I only see a confusion on her part as regards ontological vs. metaphysics. The subject matter of metaphysics isn't what exists, and to pursue the inquiry of how God insists ineluctably arrives upon a metaphysical encompassing weltanschauung.”

To which I responded,

“Thank you for commenting. I am not confused. For me ontology is a subset of metaphysics. And metaphysics is a more generous way of speaking of ontology. But, again, I'm not interested in this conversation nor do I feel the need to label something as metaphysics, no matter how general or wide reaching the definition may be. I think this is just another way to sooth our longing for knowing in a particular direction. There are many scholars who have profound thoughts in support of metaphysics. I am simply not one of them.”

First off, I want to say I have written a book that can be engaged by pop culture and requires little to no theological background. While some of the concepts are challenging, as they should be, I am inviting my reader to rise to the occasion and learn something rather than have their own egos and knowledge stroked. I want to invite them into a different way of thinking, help them to articulate new language for some of what they might be thinking and feeling, and let them know that there are different and even better ways to engage god and faith, should this be their aim.

So, I am not looking to pass down super heady and academic ideas with no place for them to land. There are many texts that speak of such high and lofty ideas. I don’t need to write another one.

Second, I am not confused at all. I found this offensive and a bit misogynistic because I don’t think they would have said the same about a man who was saying the same thing. In any case, he was the one who was confused. Confused at how anyone could move past metaphysics in such a discussion.

But all this interest and what feels like a hyper-anxiety around metaphysics has got me thinking. I want to take some time to unpack all the years and study it took me to get to the point of, “I have no opinion on this matter and it is of no consequence to me.”

So this is the first in a series I am going to call, “What is Truth?: Metaphysics and Post-Christianity.”

I have no idea how long we will go or the twists and turns it will all take. But I think it’s going to be good, for all of us!

Until next time,

Your Maria