CHRISTOCENTRIC REALISM AND REALITY UNDER A DESCRIPTION

Against metaphysical realism

A running theme throughout this book has been the idea that Christians only ever have reality under a description. We know God as he gives himself to us in Jesus Christ and by his Holy Spirit grants us faith. So to say that we have his reality only under a description is emphatically not to imply that the description constructs a reality that would not have any existence apart from it. However, it is to say that it is not possible for us to adopt a stance external to this (or any other) perspective so as to give a complete metaphysical description of the universe and its creator. Such metaphysical claims as Christians can make – whether about the creator or the creature – are those opened up by this perspective.

To put the point positively, this is because, as we saw in chapter 1, if our speech is to be about God, then we must begin where God has given himself to be the object of our knowledge and speech. This is why a Christian realism will be Christocentric. We can begin at no other place than where God has dwelt among us, where he has judged our sinfulness and graciously healed us, where he has been heard by us in the man Jesus Christ, where obedient human deeds and speech about God have been vindicated, and where the Holy Spirit has been given so that we too can tell of God ‘in our own native language’ (Acts 2:8).