Understanding

It is too easy to mistake the wrapping paper for the gift, the metaphor for the subject, our understanding for the thing to be understood. It matters not whether we understand truth, only that we engage with it.
For some of us, understanding truth is important; for some, it matters only that someone understands; for some, it matters not at all. The central fact of our existence, though, is that truth is a mystery, and God’s thoughts cannot be fully known or understood by any human being.
If that is so then there can be no wrong questions, only wrong answers. If an approach to the truth causes someone to ask awkward or unusual questions, is that wrong? Surely, these are the aspects of the picture that concern that person, and they must be dealt with even if they aren’t (to our minds) the most important questions.
All worldviews are flawed, my own not least.
If someone’s worldview does not allow the old explanations to speak to them, it is our duty to craft new explanations of the old understandings in order to reach them. We have no chance at all to change someone’s worldview before truth has touched their hearts. Once truth has touched us, none of us survives unchanged.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 8:48pm on 02 October 2004
Category: Faith, Musing