Nominalism vs Realism 5.9.2024

    If all truth is God’s truth, why would well-intentioned people differ so drastically about how they view the world? Well right off the bat some people would contend that the phrase “All truth is God’s truth” is off base. These are the sorts of individuals who think that the only way to view the world, the only true perspective is their own. We might call these folk “intellectual isolationists.” They spend a lot of their time disagreeing with others, without even trying to find common ground, much less resolution. It saddens me to say that this is the intellectual ground of all forms of fundamentalism. It may be interesting to argue with them, entertaining, even; but not fruitful. 

    There are others who, being nitpickers would want a clear, universal definition of truth. They might reply by answering “What do you mean by truth.” Again, these may be well-meaning people, but because they are essentially skeptics, who will never be satisfied with any definition of truth, conversation kind of dries up. 

    Between the twin shoals of isolationism and skepticism lies a place that many like to call “reality”. Reality is a place where we can acknowledge that there is a unified conception of truth but that not all true things are true in the same way.  We live in a world that has a plurality of different (insert your favorite plural noun), which have many different (insert your favorite qualitative adjective). There is no point really, in even arguing about this. It’s just how reality was created—it just is.  This commonsense affirmation tends to make both the isolationists and skeptics upset because it is predicated on the notion that there is more at stake than how any one individual feels about the world. 

    Pluralistic/pluralism is kind of a dog-whistle “bad word” among some, instead let’s use the word multifaceted which is, of course, a synonym, but it does not carry the intellectual baggage of pluralism. Our multifaceted world is pluralistic and diverse. Not an ideological statement, just a fact. If we want to even discuss the notion of truth, we must accept the fact that in our universe there are both dogs and cats, they are both mammals, and that there are other “animally”, and “mammally” things that are not dogs and cats. This is just basic reasoning. Evidently, it is so basic that a lot of people have missed it. 

    Historically thinkers have been divided between forms of realism and forms of idealism. The major argument is between realism and nominalism which is essentially idealism without restraints. Nominalism is the notion that there are no real things in the universe, only the perceptions that humans have and the names we give them. Nominalism is the mother’s-milk of full-on relativistic pluralism because it seems to provide justification for different definitions of truth. When certain people rail against pluralism as a concept or philosophy, their real issue is with nominalism. 

    Realism, on the other hand, affirms that there are many different things in the world, animate, inanimate, penguins, bacteria, books, and ducks for example. Realists assert that some things we cannot see are only invisible to the naked eye, and with proper apparatus, we can know, study, and enjoy them. At this point, I am in danger of flogging you with a discussion of Wittgenstein and rather he was a realist. I think, based on the Tractatus phase, that he was, but I will move on and connect the dots between all truth in general and God’s creation in particular.  Two passages in Hebrews make interesting contributions to this discussion.

“Hebrews 1:1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, Hebrews 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” (Hebrews 1:1-3 ESV)

 “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3 ESV)

 What is interesting in these passages is that they are constructed as truth statements, yet they contain few details. They are not designed, as it were, to answer to our curiosity, but to speak to our need. They are faith-focused truth statements. What we must acknowledge in a world of multifaceted dissimilarity is that some of those whom we turn into our opponents are not stupid. They are not fools. They may be wrong about many things, but they are also right about others. Similarly, in Acts 17 we read these words Paul speaks in Athens.

“Acts 17:24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, Acts 17:25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. Acts 17:26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, Acts 17:27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,” (Acts 17:24-27 ESV)

All those philosophers in the Areopagus that day, like every one of us have a cosmology, a conception of history, theories of descent, and the origins of life. And Paul contradicted them, even as he used their own literature to make his point.  The point being that Paul understood and acknowledged that different people have different views of the world and that those views are largely uncritical, cultural, and social. Even for the smartest among us. In other words, Hellenism, Judaism, and earliest Christianity were all faith systems. Pretending like they were all the same faith system did not enable communication, it prevented it.

    We will not agree with every theory, philosophy, concept, or principle we find in fallen culture. I’ve spent the last two weeks reading material from Christians with whom I have profound disagreements! Reading authors from these other “reality-based” faith systems can be even more enervating. The only way to have any conversation with anybody about anything is to agree to have the conversation. Until we are willing to examine and understand the world around us, we will largely shout into the void, hearing nothing back other than the sound of our own voices. That does not do the cause of Christ any good. In another place, Paul puts it this way

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8 ESV)

 With typical Pauline syntax and nuance, he does not tell us what any of those things are. We are to figure that out on our own. This is the intellectual side of discipleship. This is Christian growth. This is Christian maturity. We use the Bible as the foundation for sifting through the real, hardscrabble truths in the world, following Jesus, not because He is shouting, but as He whispers.