Notice that the Bible doesn’t merely state that God is sovereign. It also emphasizes human freedom. But it doesn’t just emphasize human choice and responsibility, it also claims God’s control. We want to affirm that both are true, independently of the other--objectively true. But we live in a world where everything exists in relation to other things. Nothing exists independently of anything else. Thus, truth always exists in some relational context. Bipolar kinds of truths are true only in relation to each other. I reiterate, neither is true by itself.
Our common response to bipolarities is to either accept the copout notion that they are a paradox, or else we polarize. We agree they are contradictory, that the truth of one implies the falsity of the other and vice versa, so we feel compelled to defend one and attack the other. This is the root of many of our problems: we cannot accept the tensions inherent in bipolarity. If we affirm the truth of one and reject the other, the tension is eliminated. But we fail to consider the necessity of tension in the real world.
Everything exists and is held together in tensions of all sorts. If all tension--muscular, cellular, and other--were eliminated from our bodies, they would collapse into a protoplasmic heap. Tension is a necessary part of reality. Only inappropriate tension is a problem.
About Me
- WRoark
- Professor of Christian Studies and Philosophy for more than thirty years. Author of Think like an Octopus: The Key to Becoming a Good Thinker. Now the blogosphere is my classroom. I am a contrarian, challenger of the status quo, a voice from a differing perspective. When I retired, I took off my watch, my shoes, let others answer the phone, and refuse to hurry, unless life is at stake.
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