Any lengthy discussion of truth probably contains a reference to Diogenes walking around Athens with a lamp to search for one honest man. Chances are that is about as far as it goes. Few realize the Greek thinker was a Cynic who thought truth involves how you live as well as what you say. He […]
We are just beginning to appreciate how much the huge databases modern technology makes available are affecting our thoughts about truth. Most of us are aware that merchants use them to sell their products. If we look for a pair of shoes online, ads for others pop up on our Facebook for several days. We […]
It does not take long to see that John’s Gospel speaks directly to our situation. In one of its critical scenes (John 18), Jesus and Pontius Pilate face off over the definition of truth. The confrontation could have taken place in our own White House. Pilate asks Jesus if he is a threat to his […]
A few weeks ago, Father Jude reminded us that the given in a democracy is a reasonable, educated audience. “Absent that as the valid context, free speech in a democracy is just so much noise, at best, and, at worst, a detriment.” Knowing Jude, I am sure he did not mean that all reasonable and […]
At first, I was taken aback when people read last week’s lesson as a political statement. My intention was simply to point out that a healthy society depends on being able to trust that people are telling the truth. The political examples were meant to show ours is ailing. This week, I wanted to suggest […]
The present concern with fake news and a post-truth culture goes deeper than we usually acknowledge. I pulled out some quotes from Sissela Bok’s 1978 book, Lying, that I used when writing about trust decades ago. She wrote that “trust in some degree of veracity functions as a foundation of relations among human beings: when […]
Neither shall you bear false witness against your neighbor. Sisela Bok once wrote that truth is as essential as the air we breathe and the water we drink. She claimed if we cannot believe other people are telling the truth, our society collapses and we return to a world of anarchy. Her thoughts reflect the […]
As I was writing these lessons, my thoughts continually returned to the Company of Kirkridge. This small, mostly lay Christian community gathered people from across the Northeast twice a year to support one another. At one of those meetings, we broke into small groups to update our discipline. Gathering as one, we compiled the following. […]
John’s Passion primarily involves two long conversations, one at the Last the Supper (14-18) and the second in Pilate’s chambers (18:28-19:16). Together these make up 6 of his 21 chapters. Obviously, they are important. The first begins with Jesus’ proclaiming, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”; the second ends with Pilate asking, […]
John 7 and 8 picture Jesus constantly on the run, constantly hiding; as just about every group in his society, beginning with his own family, challenges his authority or even attempts to arrest and kill him. Then in the midst of all this, Jesus promises, “The truth shall make you free!” This is certainly a […]
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