A friend who teaches theology at one of our Lutheran colleges recently sent me this text:
One quotation to write on for the midterm: “Therefore, time and again the substantial content of the biblical witness has to be reformulated. But the truth content of traditional teaching cannot be determined in dealing with details only. It needs systematic presentation. Systematic presentation is itself a test of the truth claims of each of the specific assertions that enter into a comprehensive account. The reason is that truth itself is systematic, because coherence belongs to the nature of truth. Therefore, the attempt at systematic presentation is intimately related to the concern for the truth that is search for in the investigation of traditional teaching.” (Wolfhart Pannenberg, An Introduction to Systematic Theology)
I responded: “So… being systematic is of the nature of truth? That sounds very western to me.”
My friend replied, “It’s about coherence.”
To which I glibly replied: “I’m more into incoherence these days. :)”
However, our conversation took an important turn when he pointed out that the alternative to coherence encourages either a) authoritarianism or b) privatization. In the first instance, authority comes not from the coherence of claims but the sheer force of the authoritarians themselves (this is why many authoritarians thrive in chaos). In the second instance, truth becomes simply personal truth, non-communicable between parties because there is no coherent language between us.
So coherence is, in a certain sense, of the nature of democracy.
My friend went on to point out that coherence <=> consensus and is also (I’d love for him to flesh this out but that will need to be for another time) really an interesting form of pluralism as well. By which I think he means it is only coherent forms of discourse that can encompass or welcome difference without devolving into privatization or authoritarianism.
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