Learning About Christianity

The "Both are True" Principle

Most people in their lives appear to gravitate toward a black-and-white world. We want hard-and-fast rules for deciding things - and knowing things. We think that all things should be knowable in the same way that we know that "in 1492, Columbus said the ocean blue", or "2 + 2 = 4". Shouldn't religion, if true, follow the same rules as math or history?

Unfortunately, when we delve into religion, we discover that we are dealing with what is simultaneously the most simple subject we've ever studied, and yet it is the most complex subject. And this in itself is a characteristic of Christian thought.

Throughout Christian theology, the study of the relationship between God and people, there have been proposed as solutions to various problems Solution A - similar to "the flower is red" - and Solution B - similar to "the flower is blue". Time and again, after much debate, the wisest minds in Christianity have ended up declaring that the answer is not A, nor B, but both A and B - "the flower is purple", which is a much richer description of the true situation. 

Yet this is not a compromise, for a compromise means giving up some of A and some of B, but instead is an addition and indeed a multiplication - both A and B are true in all their glorious splendor. We would do well to keep this idea in our back pocket - the idea that both A and B are true, what I shall call the "Both are True" Principle, as we explore the remainder of Christian thought. 

The Principle of Grey Reasoning.

In a related manner, many times we would like a nice pat answer. We would like, once again, to know the rules. Is A better than B, or what? Unfortunately for those who would like simplification, the answer is often, "It depends". Instead of simple black-and-white reasoning such as we would teach a 5-year old child, we must look toward shades of grey. Should one man die so that 50 should live? As first glance, the answer is "yes." But what if the situation is that one innocent baby should die so that 50 convicted murders, all of whom are in their 80's, should live? You see, the simple black-and-white is not so simple anymore. We need to develop an ability to conduct "grey" reasoning. And that is a key difference between the philosophy found in Christianity and the philosophy found in atheism or Judaism. Christianity demands that the individual evaluate the situation and come to the correct conclusion - there are no abstract situations, devoid of people. But we will delve deeper into this later.

For now, understand that Christianity demands that the human particulars of the situation be taken into account. For us, unlike the Buddhist, there is no meaning to "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" We say - "insufficient data to come to a conclusion," and walk away from the problem without worrying about it.

The Principle of Revelation

Christianity is ultimately about a Being called (in the English language) "God", the characteristics of this Being, the character of this Being, and what this Being requires of us humans. We ultimately know something about God because God has told us. God reveals things about God to us in two ways:

First, there is "general revelation". General revelation is the process by which God designed the Universe in such a way that we can see the character of God in that Universe. We see the beauty of the mountains, rainbows, and sunsets, and conclude that our God enjoys beauty. We see that the Universe is grand, stretching over billions of light-years, and conclude that our God is powerful. We see the intricate design of a cell structure and conclude that our God pays attention to details.

There is also "special revelation". Christians maintain that God also reveals things about God to us in special situations. Foremost among this is the collection of 66 books which we call the Holy Bible, which is composed of the Hebrew Bible, or "Old Testament", and the stories and specific commentaries about Jesus and His teachings, known as the New Testament. Most Christians maintain that the Holy Bible was directly influenced in it's writing by God in a complex manner.

God also reveals things to us through "personal revelation". Subject to a principle of consistency - nothing truly revealed by God will contradict the teachings in the Holy Bible - God may reveal items to us through the action of the Holy Spirit. We will discuss this later in a chapter about the Holy Spirit.

Overall, it is a foundational principle of Christian thought that nothing about God may be known unless directly willed by God that people should know this. Because God created and sustains this Universe, and knows everything that has happened and will happen in this Universe, it stands to reason that God is by far a much more complex personality than any other we can encounter. And Christian theology is the study of this complex Being - and this Being's relationship with humans and the rest of the Universe.