Encountering Truth

According to John’s Gospel, Jesus said, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (8:32, NIV). This article looks at the relevance of those words from these three vastly different perspectives: the 16th century Anabaptists, a 20th century German theologian, and a 21st century novel.  

Emil Brunner’s Emphasis on Truth as Encounter 

One of the most important theologians of the twentieth century was Emil Brunner. Born in Zürich and a lifelong resident of that Swiss city, Brunner (1889~1966) published a seminal book in 1938, and it was first released in English under the title The Divine-Human Encounter (1943).* 

One of the most important books I read in seminary and studied more deeply in graduate school was Brunner's Revelation and Reason, the 1946 translation of his original German book published in 1941 and titled Offenbarung und Vernunft.

In that significant book, Brunner emphasized that humans can know God only by means of revelation, not by discursive reason alone. What God reveals is not information to be grasped by the intellect. Rather, God's revelation is God's own self, who is known primarily by personal encounter. 

Chapter 24 of Revelation and Reason is titled “The Two Conceptions of Truth,” and the “Thou” truth as emphasized by S. Kierkegaard and M. Buber is the truth that comes from “personal encounter” (370-1). That is also the nature of truth which comes from “personal knowledge” as emphasized so strongly by Michael Polanyi in his 1958 book with that title.

When I first studied Brunner and Barth in seminary and graduate school, I found Brunner's theology more compelling because he affirmed truth as encounter and held that affirmation while leaving room for faith and reason to work together.   

Brunner and Barth agreed that God is known only through revelation. They differed on whether human beings have any capacity to seek and to find God’s revelation. Brunner said yes: there is a “point of contact.” Barth said no (“Nein!”), because that would make revelation depend partly on us humans. 

The Shack’s Emphasis on Encountering God 

Wm. Paul Young’s novel The Shack was originally written for his six children. It was first published in 2007, initially by the small, newly created Windblown Media after conventional publishers had declined it—and surprisingly, it became an international bestseller. I recently read it for the second time and was highly impressed with its theological depth. 

Mackenzie (Mack), the central character, is a nominally religious man with traditional theological/doctrinal beliefs. But the book is about his encountering the truth of God by meeting and conversing with “God the Father,” portrayed as a large Black woman, with the Holy Spirit as the fairy-like Sarayu, and with Jesus as a very human-like man who liked to do carpentry work.  

Of course, the bulk of the book must be interpreted as “myth” (in the theological sense), which means, of course, not a “false story” but rather the use of narrative to disclose truth that cannot be stated propositionally.

As Copilot, expresses it, “Mack’s weekend in the shack is not meant to be read as a historical event; it is a narrative vehicle for revelation, healing, and encounter—Brunner’s Wahrheit als Begegnung in fictional form.” (I thought that was a clever way to depict what The Shack was saying.)  

Mack’s spiritual growth and deep comprehension of truth came through the deep encounters with the triune God in the “shack” that he discovered in the woods. The truth he learned from those encounters was quite different from the doctrines he had accepted as a rather perfunctory Christian believer. 

The Sixteenth Century Anabaptists 

The Anabaptist movement began in Zürich, the same Swiss city where Brunner was born. From the start, that modest beginning in 1525 emphasized discipleship, following the Christ they encountered in the Bible and in their somewhat mystical experiences, rather than by studying theological doctrines.  

It has long been said that there is no "Anabaptist theology,” for their movement was about doing rather than writing about theological doctrines. Although I have a Ph.D. in theology, I am happy to be a progressive Anabaptist now, placing emphasis on encountering truth and on seeking to follow Christ faithfully.  

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* The German title was Wahrheit als Begegnung. A second German edition was published in 1963 under the same title, but the English translation, issued the following year, is titled Truth as Encounter: A Study in the Theology of Truth.