The following is commentary on an excerpt from Berdyaev's Truth and Revelation. My thoughts in italics font.
Truth is not objective, ordinary reality, reflected in the knower and entering into him from outside, but rather the enlightenment, the transfiguration of reality: it is the introduction into the world's data of a quality, which was not there before truth was revealed and known.
Christians tend to regard truth as an objective, ordinary reality that enters from the outside. I can’t count the many ways Christians have informed me of this using all sorts of evidence to support their point.
“You want reality? Try flying off a building by flapping your arms. Better yet, let me punch you in the face. Feel the pain? Good! That’s reality!”
That’s all fine until you notice that this approach to reality differs little from the sort that pure materialists like August Comte promulgated. At best, partial truth is the only thing an “objective reality” approach reveals— a reality stripped of spirit; hence, not reality at all.
Reality runs deeper than people reacting to external stimuli. Reality seeks spiritual participation.
Reality is what happens after the aggressive Christian punches me in the face, and the pain subsides.
Reality is how I decide to think about the punch and what I do about it afterward. During those moments, I can step beyond the objectiveness of reality and transfigure it through my subjective being and freedom. I can inject a quality that was not there before. See or reveal a reality that was not there before the truth of the punch in the face was known. Reality goes beyond what and asks why.
Truth is not conformity with what we call being but the kindling of a light within being.
Aligning with God and Creation is not a lifelong conformity project. If it were, then God would be the same as the totalitarian demons destroying the world. Aligning with God and Creation is not about complying with God’s plan via submissive obedience. Instead, it is the realization that God’s plan depends on our plan. The two plans must meet—and align. We are not just seeking the light of God; God is also seeking the light in us.
I am in darkness and seek the light; I do not yet know truth, but I seek it.
Those who are in darkness are slaves, but those who are seeking light in the darkness are utilizing their freedom. The act of seeking is a preeminent indicator of spiritual freedom.
By this very fact, I affirm the existence of Truth and light, existence in another sense than the existence of the world's realities. My seeking is already the dawning light, and the truth is already beginning to reveal itself.
Objective reality truth is an oppressive, mundane imposition that demands unthinking subservience. Those who seek beyond that level of truth begin to understand that truth is an awakening of the spirit leading to the communion of spirit.
Objective truth is knowledge of reality. Spiritual truth is reality itself. Objective truth is lower truth.
Truth is not objective, ordinary reality, reflected in the knower and entering into him from outside, but rather the enlightenment, the transfiguration of reality: it is the introduction into the world's data of a quality, which was not there before truth was revealed and known.
Christians tend to regard truth as an objective, ordinary reality that enters from the outside. I can’t count the many ways Christians have informed me of this using all sorts of evidence to support their point.
“You want reality? Try flying off a building by flapping your arms. Better yet, let me punch you in the face. Feel the pain? Good! That’s reality!”
That’s all fine until you notice that this approach to reality differs little from the sort that pure materialists like August Comte promulgated. At best, partial truth is the only thing an “objective reality” approach reveals— a reality stripped of spirit; hence, not reality at all.
Reality runs deeper than people reacting to external stimuli. Reality seeks spiritual participation.
Reality is what happens after the aggressive Christian punches me in the face, and the pain subsides.
Reality is how I decide to think about the punch and what I do about it afterward. During those moments, I can step beyond the objectiveness of reality and transfigure it through my subjective being and freedom. I can inject a quality that was not there before. See or reveal a reality that was not there before the truth of the punch in the face was known. Reality goes beyond what and asks why.
Truth is not conformity with what we call being but the kindling of a light within being.
Aligning with God and Creation is not a lifelong conformity project. If it were, then God would be the same as the totalitarian demons destroying the world. Aligning with God and Creation is not about complying with God’s plan via submissive obedience. Instead, it is the realization that God’s plan depends on our plan. The two plans must meet—and align. We are not just seeking the light of God; God is also seeking the light in us.
I am in darkness and seek the light; I do not yet know truth, but I seek it.
Those who are in darkness are slaves, but those who are seeking light in the darkness are utilizing their freedom. The act of seeking is a preeminent indicator of spiritual freedom.
By this very fact, I affirm the existence of Truth and light, existence in another sense than the existence of the world's realities. My seeking is already the dawning light, and the truth is already beginning to reveal itself.
Objective reality truth is an oppressive, mundane imposition that demands unthinking subservience. Those who seek beyond that level of truth begin to understand that truth is an awakening of the spirit leading to the communion of spirit.
Objective truth is knowledge of reality. Spiritual truth is reality itself. Objective truth is lower truth.
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