Truth versus narrative

One thing that came out of the rise of postmodernism in the 00’s was a regained prominence of narrative as means of understanding truth. In his book titled “The Postmodern Condition,” philosopher Jean Francois-Lyotard argued that contrary to the West’s enlightenment belief that all truth must be filtered through science to be considered legitimate knowledge, it is actually narrative which should be the arbiter of truth. Narrative can do something science is unable to do: bring meaning. I actually saw great potential in Lyotard’s idea.

I am naturally a story-teller. I see the power in story, a way of discovering deeper meaning. It’s not only a way to entertain, it is a way to encourage another to let their guard down, to see things from a different perspective as well as to find deeper meaning to life’s questions that rational arguments cannot explain.

After all, why do you think Jesus taught using parables rather than bullet points and sermons? One could argue that the Bible itself is presented largely as a narrative.

That does not mean the story I believe in Scripture is false.

Au contraire.

It means truth—the Truth—and meaning can be packaged within fiction. Within story.

C.S. Lewis is most famous for taking deep theological elements and wrapping them up in a series of children’s literature based in Narnia. He often used phrases elsewhere such as “myth become fact” and a “baptized imagination.”

There is great power in the theology of story. When it come to introducing Jesus to a non-believer or skeptic, it is usually not argument that brings them to understanding.

It is story, either by telling others how Jesus works in my broken life or showing others Jesus through the story of my day to day actions.

This makes sense to me.

However, a danger can also exists in Lyotard’s idea, one that I had also fallen into: the idea that a person’s story is all that matters. In other words, MY story is supreme. God enters into MY story, not the other way around.

The trajectory of this idea leads to the primary problem of our society today: subjectivism. What’s true for you is not necessarily what’s true for me.

Humanity actually circled back to the serpent’s temptation to Eve in the Garden: “You will be like God.” The individual gets to decide their truth, i.e., their definitions of good and evil.

This subjectivity (“My truth”) is where narrative falls flat.

2024 might have seen the death of this idea of narrative. (I’m not for certain, but I hope and pray).

All year long (and even in the years prior to), I would watch something play out on the news only to be told later by the same news source that is not what I saw. I was told by the “experts” that everything I am personally experiencing is not happening.

“The economy is great!” even though my grocery and gas bill doubled. “The President is at the top of his game and sharp as ever!” even though he clearly was not. “White supremacy is the most dangerous threat to our nation!” even though the most notable cases seem to turn out to be frauds and as of New Year’s Day, everyone’s talking about ISIS cells embedded around the nation. “The border is closed!” even though I am watching caravans of illegal aliens storming gates and ripping through razor wire in Eagle Pass, Texas. And most recently, a spokeswoman for the FBI declared the terrorist attack in New Orleans was most definitely NOT a terrorist attack as pictures of an ISIS flag on the back of the attacker’s pick up truck circulated across the internet. I saw “fact-checkers”—supposedly under the banner of truth spew the biggest narratives.

Institutions that we once trusted and that we should trust have lost all credibility. This is because the necessity of truth has been replaced by the necessity of maintaining a narrative. These institutions worked exceptionally hard to get their narrative before the public’s eyes. If anyone raised questions, they would be called quacks, conspiracy theorists, and somehow, white supremacist.

Often during 2024, when I would post that I hope truth prevails, I was not speaking of a candidate. I was hoping that Americans would see through the narrative presented.

I was hoping to see that America understood that there is such a thing as truth and that truth would always prevail over narrative.

And truth prevailed, not because Trump won but because narrative lost.

Hopefully, society will reject the idea that there is no such thing as objective truth, and that we might see narrative for what it is when it presented as fact yet is highly contrary to that truth.

There is truth—Jesus is that Truth. It is objective, real, and not defined by ourselves.

And it is good to know that Jesus as Truth has survived the harshest attacks for millennia, both physically and philosophically, and continues to grow strong throughout the world.

Finding truth in narrative can be a good thing. Creating narrative as a substitute for truth is nefarious.

There is a truth beyond us. We must rest on that truth because if we rest on any man-made truth, that foundation will crumble.

Kind of like what we saw in 2024.