The Strength of Truth

Recently, while reading essays by Abraham Heschel in the edited collection Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, I came across a statement of his that has commanded my attention. Heschel says: 

"Yet the strength of truth lies not in refuting others but in understanding itself, in being consistent with itself." 

The claim is elegant, yet provocative. It is a declaration of certainty, yet one that invites thorough inspection of one's deepest convictions. In an era that is dominated by the sin of idolizing our own thoughts and world-views as unquestionably divine while we utterly demonize those with whom we disagree, Heschel's illumination of "the strength of truth" demands that we lay bare our own claims and concepts of truth in order to see if they are worth holding whatsoever. I interpret  Heschel's statement as an invitation to investigate whether or not our claims and concepts of truth are in fact true.

Making such an investigation of truth is no simple matter. It includes attention to the many dimensions of human life, including (but not limited to) the moral, political, spiritual, theological, psychological, biological, individual, familial, and interpersonal aspects of life, all of which contribute to a life well lived. Recognizing that human persons are multi-dimensional, it is stating the obvious to acknowledge that knowing and living the truth requires intelligent attention to all the constituent dimensions of human life, both for the individual as well as for the whole human community. This is not a new idea. Our most revered philosophers and theologians have agreed that the good life is one that requires the practice of the virtue of prudence: the habit of knowing the right thing to be done, at the right time, and for the right reason, with respect to oneself, as well as other persons.

If virtues are habits, and prudence is the habit of knowing the right reason of things to be done, then the acquisition of prudence requires careful inspection of all of our claims to truth. That is to say, the strength of our own truth claims is grounded in our acquisition and exercise of prudence.

Very few people strike me as having acquired the virtue of prudence. I certainly have not. I think it is fair to say that most of us are on the path towards the acquisition of prudence. Being on the path towards prudence requires the admission that most of us still make mistakes and that we are in need of growing in the strength of truth. If growing in the strength of truth requires, as Heschel implicates, laying bare our truth claims, then we must investigate our own claims and concepts of truth through the criticisms and insights of others. Acquiring prudence and growing in the strength of truth requires, then, that we also exercise humility of conviction.

Humility of conviction does not consist of a radical abdication of our most trusted or sacred principles. What it does require is that we daily remind ourselves that our minds are neither divinely inerrant, nor certainly perfected by our own rational capacity. I may trust that God is all wise, but that does not mean that this mortal mind fully understands every divine precept, law, or liberty. I may trust that experience or education brings about better understanding of the world and our place in it, but that does not mean that I can ever see the whole picture or rely solely on what my rational faculties can digest. I agree with Gene Outka, the respected scholar of religion and ethics, who encourages us to recognize the limitations of our own finitude. 

There is wisdom in honoring the limits of reason. It saves us from the idolatry of self-righteousness so often present in religious fundamentalism, and it keeps us from the ruinous pride of esteeming human reason as infallible. Somewhere in-between are the building blocks of prudence and the sure grounding for the strength of truth.