Knowledge, by virtue of its intransigent qualities, is a dangerous substance. As a topic of discussion, the epistemological quandaries of knowing, and being, have been the focus of investigation throughout man’s quest to find meaning and purpose within the framework of life. Philosophers have long sought after the elusive answers of subsistence and its varied enigmatic difficulties that this said being has afforded to the human race. What is the purpose of existence? Is there a central point that allows meaning for all that is, or is animation of being merely a random act, with no unifying directive? These, and other similar inquiries concerning knowledge and informational acquisition, have been the focus of philosophical pursuits, historically.
Life, and the pursuit of understanding being, has often led to seemingly irreconcilable philosophies pertaining to ideological illumines and ruminations. A varied polarity of methodologies relating to the comprehension of truth, and truths base, is the inevitable result. Douglas Groothuis challenges the reader in: Truth Decay, as he forces the issue of examining the philosophical skepticism associated with a postmodern mindset.
By drawing attention to the Nihilistic purveyance of disenfranchisement created through the vacuous abandonment of cultural hope and expansion, Groothuis concentrates the reader’s attention to the relevant issues at hand. As the mark of excellence is lowered concerning the application of given standards practically and culturally, through changing assumptions and expectations via the reconfiguration of truth into new pathways of emerging understanding of a substantively different nature: culture changes. The significant danger of this elevation of truths posits is found in cultures impact and all that falls within its environment. This includes the church and the churches intricate domain. As cultural assumptions are allowed to change and re-emerge into new pathways, ancient truths that are non-negotiable run the risk of becoming points of irrelevance, or conflict, within the turbulent process of adjustment.
Christianity can easily exist within the paradoxical vortex of conflict. The Gospel is a message of disputation and metamorphosis, affecting and effectively transforming the posits and individuals who should fall under its pervasive jurisdiction. Violent interdiction into sins perimeter has always been the means of establishing THE TRUTH over purported truths of a speculative nature.
Irrelevance is not a paradigm of understanding that Christianity, or its postulations and universally applicable truths, can exist within. When certainty becomes a non-essential formulation, Christianity suffers. Non-negotiable foundations of thought and communicative knowledge are the basis of faith in Christ. The truth that is contained in the revelation of Jesus transcends culture, and this desire to interpret what is acceptable or not acceptable is an irreducible clause that is non-negotiable. It is the basis of what is accepted as truth.
The problem of postmodernity and Christianity is the re-interpretation of truth and the churches struggle to present universal dictums within a paradigm that rejects absolute objective truths as a plausible condition. When untruth is accepted as being true, those who perceive untruth as being true, are trapped in an unrelenting struggle that is difficult to escape. Perception does not change reality. The reality of truth however, can change faulty perceptions. The ability and desire to challenge untenable thought patterns and philosophies must be the nature of the church’s business at this strategic hour.
