Relativism and Truth
December 7, 2017
Hosted by Fr. John Holleman
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Episode Description
A fair number of Americans today subscribe to the loose collection of ideas called Relativism. I deal with its tenets and try to show how it is unworkable both in theory and practice. Its basic tenet is that there is no moral Truth: What's good for the goose may or may not be good for the gander. To each his own truth. The focus is on doing your own thing so long as you do no harm to another person. The first problem with this is Who determines what harm is? There are a host of unforeseen consequences to any act. But the basic problem is that it considers acts isolated from loving relationships. It's all about what I consider good for me. It glorifies selfishness. It is popular because it can be used to justify what I want to do. The end result is an enslavement to the self. Thus it can be used to mask my behavior versus conventional morality.
Religious Faith and the Public Square
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We live in a society of confusing, competing voices, some strident, which overtly or covertly suggest that religion has nothing to offer in the debates concerning the important issues we face today. First of all, it is impossible to avoid religious categories since they deal with the most fundamental of human concerns, namely, where do we find purpose and meaning in life? What is my purpose in being alive? Is life absurd as the existentialists claim? What was I born for?
I believe that we are inherently spiritual creatures whether we like it or not. Denying the existence of God involves an unspoken faith just as much as affirming the existence of God. It is important that we examine our unspoken assumptions. My approach is not to insist on any one answer, but give people a perspective that will help them to recognize more adequate answers than some that are out there.
Fr. John Holleman
I have a fairly extensive educational background with a B.S. in Math, an M.A. in Philosophy, and three graduate degrees in Theology, two of them European. I have had extensive pastoral experience in both the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church, including a year in Alaska where I had four parishes and flew a plane. I have been included in Who's Who and Personalities of the West and Midwest Award for 1977-78.
As a parish priest to both rich and poor, I have had extensive exposure to people problems in both the confessional and as a counselor. Hence, I try to help people by giving them a different perspective on their problems rather than abstruse theological issues. Adult education has been one of my strengths such as lectures on Scripture and how it relates to problems they can identify with.
We live in a society that increasingly seeks to marginalize, if not omit, religious insights from the public square, as if to imply that it has no legitimate contribution to make to the societal problems we all face. I believe this to be a mistake that seeks to deprive us of legitimate input. Too often today we see an intolerant confrontation that replaces the genuine dialogue characteristic of liberal democracy that has governed our disputations in the past. We speak with a number of guests that provide us with intelligent insights we might not otherwise be aware of. This provides an important contribution to contemporary concerns.
