Wise Words from a Pretty Boy

First of all, a point of clarification: I am not the "pretty boy" referenced in the title of this post. I use that title to describe a young Hollywood actor, Chace Crawford, recently voted "Hottest Bachelor" by People magazine. His wise words, which I will quote later in this post, are an oasis of rationality in the inchoate worldview propounded by the cultural elite (include Hollywood, which makes his words all the more oasis-like).

In a nutshell, for several decades (perhaps much longer) Western culture has posed doubt to be the summum bonum of life. Our current cultural quest, it seems, is to rid our minds and hearts of any attachment to "absolute truths" as foundational to existence. This is the ultimate end of Western "individualism" - ridding our lives of any external, transcendant standards so that each individual may "define his or herself" however he or she wants, without any risk of accountability or judgment.

This can be seen in two current postmodern philosophies. Neo-pragmatism avers that the only standard of value in life is "what works for me." Deconstructionism propounds the meaning-laden theory that nothing means anything, so I can make anything mean whatever I want.

This is seen also in international politics, in which our current President seems utterly unwilling to take a clear moral stance towards the evil regimes in the Middle East, but only expresses his doubt about American goodness. In fact, it seems that any sense of absolute morality has been ejected from political discourse.

Hollywood recently put forth two films that explicitly address this topic.

The film Doubt, featuring riveting performances by its four cast members, superficially deals with a case of child-molestation by a Catholic priest. But the deeper issue in the film is the utter inability of people to have absolute certainty about anything. An older nun (superlatively portrayed by Meryl Streep) is the only character in the film who displays a sense of firm conviction about her faith; yet the climax of the movie comes when she despairingly cries, "I have such doubts!"

Religulous is comedian Bill Maher's satirical attempt to poke holes in the very notion of religion itself. In the film, he interacts with individuals who represent only the most absurd elements of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and other faiths. He does all of this to prove that religion is pointless, that those who endorse it are ignorant rubes, and that it is much better to live in perpetual doubt.

Sadly, this attitude is infecting the Church as well, with "Jesus Seminar" followers destroying the credibility of Scripture and with some (though not all) Emergent Christians expressing disdain for orthodox Christian teachings or for the exclusivity of Christ as the unique Savior of humankind. I still haven't decided whether these phenomena are the result of Christians' prideful unwillingness to submit to the authority of God's revelation, or the result of Christians' sad proclivity for desiring to be "with it" even more than they desire to be "with God."

In any case, it's my opinion that the following simple quote from pretty boy Chace Crawford ought to be seen as prophetic to all disciples of Jesus Christ:

Doubt your doubts before you doubt your beliefs.

I called the quote simple but it is, in fact, quite profound. Think of it this way: When you are confronted with a proposition that claims to be an absolute truth, and your initial reaction is to doubt that truth, today's culture would say that you should go with your doubt not just about that particular absolute but about all absolutes.

Chace Crawford's words give us a different piece of advice. When we doubt a proposition that claims to be absolute, we should first ask ourselves why do we doubt it? Is it because we have thought carefully about the questions raised by the proposition, and have we looked at it logically? Or is it because there is something deep within us that doesn't want to acknowledge its truth?

If we reject a truth claim, is it because we have found a more logical proposition to answer the questions is raises? Or does the proposition so unsettle us that we'd rather dismiss it than deal honestly with its claims?

The ancient and medieval philosophers put it this way: We should not seek to conform the truth to my own mind and soul; rather, we should seek to conform my own mind and soul to the Truth. It is objective truth that critiques me, not I who critiques objective truth. When I am confronted with a proposition that claims to be absolute, like 2 + 2 = 4, I have only two options: I can conform my mind to that truth and accept it, or I can live in rebellion against its reality. There is no middle ground.

We Christians--indeed, all human beings--have been seeking to find middle ground in matters of faith for too long. In reality, we have only two options: we can doubt the Christian faith and reject it (as much of our culture is doing), or we can follow Chace Crawford's advice to doubt our doubts, and live boldly (not apologetically) in the truth of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Practical Significance of the Trinity

Tomorrow is Trinity Sunday, in which we acknowledge and celebrate one of the most distinctive theological tenets of the Christian faith.

Our confession that the Divine actually exists, and that we can know objectively true information about the Divine, distinguishes us from atheism and agnosticism. We distinguish ourselves from deism (as well as much of ancient pagan philosophy) by affirming that the Divine is a personal Being who continues to interact with the world He has created through revelation and miraculous acts.

However, we also classify ourselves differently from the pantheistic (or panentheistic) tendencies of Hinduism, Buddhism, and many current spiritual fads by affirming that the Divine is a transcendent Being who confronts all nature with His sovereign holiness. Finally, the Christian belief about God is at odds with Judaism and Islam in that, while we affirm God's unity, it is a unity that is expressed mysteriously in three distinct Persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As a theological doctrine, the Trinity has been grappled with for centuries. Specifically, we owe a debt of gratitude to the great Cappadocian Fathers of the Eastern Church (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianus) and Saint Augustine of the Western Church for their masterful attempts of expressing the life of the Trinity. Today we are seeing a remarkable renewal of trinitarian thought among both Protestant and Catholic theologians.

However, in honor of Trinity Sunday, I would just like to share a few brief thoughts I've been thinking about this doctrine's practical significance in the everyday life of the individual believer, and in the life of the Church:

First of all, the Doctrine of the Trinity reminds us that Ultimate Reality is relational in nature. The highest Truth in existence is not a static, bare fact to be analyzed or reasoned about: Ultimate Truth is the creative, dynamic interaction—the perichoresis—among the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who exist in intimate communion with one another.

Perhaps this should give us a clue as to how we should “package” the truths of our faith. While systematic theologies and rational apologetics serve an indispensable purpose as part of the package, Christians must understand that living out the truths of faith in intimate communion with others, and in a dynamic and creative way, is perhaps the best way to communicate truthfully the nature of the God we represent, worship, and serve.

Secondly, the Doctrine of the Trinity implies that unity and diversity need not be contradictory terms, but that they together give us a deep insight into the nature of truth and reality. The three Persons of the Trinity are clearly distinct; there is, therefore, diversity within the Godhead. At the same time, the Godhead is inseparably unified in essence and in purpose; thus, there is also unity.

This extraordinary fact of the Divine relationship may have something unique to say about human relationships as well, especially in the church. There are those Christian denominations that call for a unity that is almost “uniformity”—a situation that allows for no originality or creativity in communicating and living out our faith. At the other side of the spectrum are those who champion diversity at all costs, to the extent it is nearly impossible to acknowledge or articulate what truly unites us (the Gospel) without being labeled “offensive” or “doctrinaire.” Our Trinitarian God can be a model for us as we strive to acknowledge and celebrate the rich diversity that exists within the Christian community, while also unapologetically confessing a greater unity because of the reconciling work of Jesus Christ.

Finally, individual human beings (both male and female) are created in the Image of God (Genesis 1:27). As an individual I am a multi-faceted creature, and my identity cannot be reduced merely to my body, or my mind, or my emotions. All three constitute distinct parts of one being: me. As the Trinity is three distinct Persons in one God, I must strive to harmonize the distinct aspects of my personality into the single purpose of loving God and loving others (Mark 12:28-31).

Loving others, I must show respect for these different facets of personality in every person I meet. I can never view another human being as merely a body to be exploited, emotions to be manipulated, or a mind to be debated. I must view each human being as a whole person…as my neighbor…and as C. S. Lewis once aptly remarked, “Next to the blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses” (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory). May God daily grant me the ability to see His Trinitarian Image in my wife, my friends, my congregation members, and every person I meet, and may He give me the grace to love them as He loves them.