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WHAT IS TRUTH
The Rev. Harold Shepherd, CD, M.A., S.T.M., LL.B., LL.M., Ph.D.
Sermon from April 24, 2005

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14: 5-6

The term “truth” can be used in a number of different ways. The first is descriptive. For example, one can say that it is true that Ottawa is the capital of Canada. One could point to an apple and correctly identify it, using either the general term of a more specific scientific classification. Truth, from this point of view, represents use of words and concepts in ways that conform to established linguistic, political, cultural and scientific conventions. As a descriptive process, language can point to both material phenomena as well as to a shared understanding of social, religious and political concepts. Truth is conceived in terms of consistency with these systems of thought and convention. This approach can never eliminate subjectivity. Language can be chosen to reflect value judgements. For example, one person’s terrorist may be another person’s freedom fighter. This reflects a deeper use of language to express a value system or world view. It is at this level that the question about what is truth becomes significant.

As Anglicans, it is often said that we look to three pillars that underpin the theology of the Church. The first and most important is Scripture. According to the sixth Article of Religion, the Scriptures contain all things necessary for salvation and whatever cannot be found in them cannot be required as an article of faith. The second is tradition. The Scriptures constitute a body of literature that reflects oral traditions, historical writings, prophetic books, liturgical materials and New Testament writings that span about two thousand years. The world of concubines and “holy war” that slaughtered not only the defeated enemy, but also their families and livestock, or that stoned people to death for minor offences like disrespecting parents was no longer practiced in post-exilic Judaism. How can theological texts written over a long period of time, in different languages, and emerged out of different cultural and even religious environments be used to form a coherent theological world view?

This is where the teaching office of the Church comes in. We do not have a central teaching authority like the Roman Catholic Church has. In the Anglican Church, we look to the creeds (Article 8) and General Councils (Article 21) for authority, to the extent that they are consistent with Scripture. The teachings of the Church are reflected in the 39 Articles of Religion, academic writings, Church law and practice, commission reports, and the like. They reflect the results of the Church discerning the mind of Christ and the voice of the Holy Spirit in interpreting and applying Scripture to our contemporary situations. The third source of authority is reason. This is rooted in the Wisdom traditions of the Hebrew Bible- God first created Wisdom, then the world through it (see, for example, Proverbs 8). Something of God’s nature, will, design and purpose can be discerned through observation and reflection with respect to the material order and the human condition. Paul alludes to this in his contention that the Gentiles can be held to account before God even though they are not bound by the Jewish Law because God’s law has been disclosed to them in nature (see Romans 1).

Historically, the philosophical and scientific methodology of Aristotle was taken up by Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century, making reason an important element in discerning the mind and will of God in this important theological tradition. However, Jesus did not say that he is the source of correct teaching or of an authentic world view from a philosophical or academic point of view. He did not say that he teaches correct theology. He says that he is the truth. John’s Gospel emphasizes the importance of Jesus dwelling in us and us in him in order to be empowered to represent him in the world. According to John 16:13: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” Without the inner working of the Holy Spirit, one can never come to an understanding of truth. At best, one can reach a degree of right belief (orthodoxy) and right practice (orthopraxy), but not a true understanding of the mind, love and power of God or an ability to discern his presence in the world. The Windsor Report puts it this way in paragraph 55: “If the notion of scriptural authority is itself to be rooted in scripture, and to be consonant with the central truths confessed by Christians from the earliest days, it must be seen that the purpose of scripture is not simply to supply true information, nor just to prescribe in matters of belief and conduct, nor merely to act as a court of appeal, but to be part of the dynamic life of the Spirit through which God the Father is making the victory which was won by Jesus' death and resurrection operative within the world and in and through human beings. Scripture is thus part of the means by which God directs the Church in its mission, energises it for that task, and shapes and unites it so that it may be both equipped for this work and itself part of the message.”