What is Truth? Psychology, Sociology, and Philosophy

Material Epistemology does aid in the knowledge of the Authentic Self insofar as the intellect can allow. Psychology, Sociology, And Philosophy, as disciplines of observation and, therefore, can move one toward a better understanding and knowing oneself. They are essential, therefore, in the pursuit of human understanding and cannot be discounted as valuable by a believer even if the practitioners of these disciplines reject any notion of the transcendent. Christian Sacramentality can look at these disciplines as True, in a material sense, but, more importantly, they are Sacramental in an objective sense.

Holy Family Shrine in Gretna, Nebraska. The Paschal Mystery is evidence of the relationship between Heaven and Earth. The Cross is not just an instrument of death; the Cross reveals our Hope for eternity. Ave Crux Spes Unica (P. Smith)

Psychology

All psychology is aimed at the mental health of the individual. The ultimate end of psychology, I teach my students, is to help the individual learn more about themselves and in that knowledge, to experience greater levels of happiness in one’s life. The study of the human psyche allows for a deeper understanding of who an individual is and why they may behave a certain way. I focus mostly on Freudian Psychology with my students, mostly because of cross-curricular reasons; other classes will discuss the same topics and it helps students to see the interconnectedness of disciplines. Freudian Psychology employs practices of psychoanalysis for the purpose of identifying reasons why an individual behaves in a certain manner, and when those reasons are ascertained, the business of correcting or modifying certain behavior is employed, all for the sake of self-knowledge and of creating a disposition wherein the individual may experience healthier relationships with the self and with others. The ultimate goal, then, is healthy relationships for the sake of Peace and harmony in one’s life. I stress the word “relationship” when I am talking about this with my students. If the transcendent Authentic Self is characterized by a drive toward relationship, as the image and likeness of God is, in part, relationship, then the fact that Freudian Psychology, and really any psychology, orients us toward better relationships with self and others, then psychology can be considered Sacramental as it is a sign pointing to what Christian Anthropology says our Authentic Self is. This is the theme I keep as I continue teaching about psychology; the actual structure of Freud’s consciousness and personality suggests an ordered system directed toward relationship.

St. Rose Philippine Duschesne: "The Woman Who us always Praying". She was known for her deep, Loving relationships with orphans, women, and the Potawatomi. (P. Smith)

Freud is relatively easy to teach. My students appreciate the more material topics in class because they are easier to grasp and apply in everyday life. But I continually stress how each lesson I give describes an apparent material trajectory toward a transcendent Truth of who we really are.

What is Truth? Sacramentality

Material epistemology appeals to the human ego in the sense that the knowledge gained through material epistemology, episteme, is within the boundaries of human comprehension and control. This episteme serves to process the world within the dimensions of human comprehension. The knowledge of the Authentic Self, on the other hand, requires a phronetical experience where one acquiesces to a Truth greater than one can comprehend. Knowledge of the Authentic Self requires us to tie those ropes around our waist and let God pull us out of the Pit. This, again, does not suggest material epistemology to be without merit as the pursuit of Truth through episteme does, indeed, suggest greater Truths. The ropes, after all, can be observed and studied. Further, as I teach students later in the course, if we perceive or think about God as Creator, then all material things, all Created Things, have in them the potential to be a sign of a greater Truth. To view the created world in such a way is to view the world Sacramentally. The ideas and material of this world hint at or suggest Truth of Authentic Self, which one can understand in term is relationship with self, with others, with creation, and with God.

Light shining through a stained-glass window. The material Truth of the light on the wall symbolically or Sacramentally suggests there must be a window filtering the light. (P. Smith)

This section of the course appeals to many of my students. They have heard about how in Smith’s class they will study psychology, and sociology, and philosophy. These are all subjects that they think they will Love and a lot of them will end up spending $150,000 on a degree in one of these subjects when they go to college. But what they do not know before coming into this class is how I will use some elements of psychology, sociology, and philosophy (and really any science) to suggest how we, as humans, can find in the material world, the Pit, evidence pointing to some greater Truths of how we are and who we are meant to be. Essentially, I will teach my students to start looking at things like psychology, sociology, and philosophy as being Sacramental, especially in how they all seem to suggest the centrality of relationship, Trinity, as part of the Authentic Self.

What is Truth? Beatific Vision

St. Thomas Aquinas uses the term Beatific Vision to refer to the afterlife in the presence of God. He suggests that in the presence of God, in relationship with God, one has access to Truth and Beauty in a way that cannot be experienced within the earthy dimensions. Aquinas imagined a vision of God. A Beautiful vision in which we would kneel in awe. But the Beatific Vision can also be thought of as a capacity to “see” the other and the self for what we Truly are: the Authentic Self. By viewing God for who God Truly is, and by recognizing that one is made in the image and likeness of God, one recognizes the Truth of oneself. It is in this relationship with the Transcendent Divinity that one sees oneself… one’s Authentic Self. Similarly, one possesses the Beatific Vision to see the other’s Eternal Loveliness.  We start to become the Lover and the Beloved that we were made to be. The eternal dignity of humankind, then, can fully be recognized within the context of a relationship with the divine, as the divine exists outside the dimensions of time and space.

St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Fort Collins, Colorado (P. Smith)

What is Truth? Human Dignity Outside the Pit

The dimensions of time and space limit the ability of humankind to recognize this Authentic Self or human dignity, at least fully. The reliance on material epistemology to know what is True about human dignity conditions the individual to a certain perception of human beings and dignity within the context of a given time and space and fails to see the entirety of humankind. Simply put, we often become easily fixated on the material Truths of human dignity and the Authentic Self, and this fixation can cause us to forget about the deeper, more mysterious and more profound realities of who we are made to be. I tell my students to think about the Pit. I draw a picture of myself at the bottom of the Pit, and, in the picture, my eyes are looking downward and never up. I remind students that the top of the Pit is so far away that it is almost as if it doesn’t exist to me; if I can’t see it, then it must not exist. My entire perception of reality, including my human dignity and my Authentic Self, then, becomes conditioned by what I can observe and study in the Pit around me. The next step is a little complicated, but it takes some logic, which, if I go slowly, my students can understand. I tell them, “The Pit around me conditions my perception of Truth, but what if there was not Pit? What if I was outside of the Pit where there are no limitations? How do we describe ourselves without those conditions of being in a Pit?” I lob this one across the plate.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Notre Dame, Indiana. Sometimes, if we are looking, we can see greater Truths outside of the darkness of time and space. (P. Smith)

A student raises their hand. “Well, I guess you could say that outside of the Pit we are unconditioned and free to know the Truth of who the Authentic Self is.”  I smile. The unconditioned self’s perception of human dignity is not limited by time and space. The self and the other is viewed as having equal dignity. I do not push it right now, but some of my students remember that based on this model or this analogy, only God is Truly free to see us as Beloved; only God can really see us for what we are made to be. But if we could somehow tap into that vision that God has of us, maybe we can be free too?

What is Truth? Human Dignity

We are talking about the Authentic Self. What is the Authentic Self? I tell my students that if we study the development of humankind over the ages, there seems to be, in general, a trend. We seem to be moving toward a sense of unity and equality, at least philosophically. That is, even within the previous two centuries humankind has seen a movement from concepts like slavery and degradation to ideals that seek to recognize the equal Dignity of all humankind. My students give me case study after case study of examples in the news to the contrary, and they are right; humans are pretty rotten to each other right now. But, I explain to them, if we look at larger scales of time in our history, it seems that we are moving toward a more universal vision of what human dignity means. There are more social justice organizations now than even in the history of the world, and there seems to be more people willing to devote their life to the cause of human Dignity. I suggest to my students that this movement toward equal dignity might be considered as a sign of our Authentic Self. The claim that all humans possess equal dignity and that dignity should be recognized as part of what we can call the authentic self and a full and healthy society. It is important to note that the Authentic Self and a full and healthy society are connected in some way. If equal dignity is a goal for which all humanity should strive, it is equally reasonable to claim that all humans, from the beginning, have possessed that equal dignity, whatever “equal dignity” might mean. If we claim that all humans throughout all time have possessed equal dignity, though it may not have been recognized, it is rational to claim that dignity is a Truth that exists outside of time and space. Equal Dignity is a Reality or a Truth regardless of opinion or personal ideology. This is why I don’t try to prove the reality of objective Truth being superior to subjective Truth; I have only had a few students in my career who have argued that some humans, inherently, have more Dignity than others. But that argument is easily dismissed when I ask them if they are referring to whether some humans actually have less dignity or if they simply are living their life or are being treated as if they have less dignity. I do not allow students to say that anyone is ever stripped of their dignity! I emphatically teach that all humans are equal in dignity, but it is an oppression and subjugation strategy to tell others they have less or more dignity. Dignity is an eternal and objective Truth. Dignity, then, is part of the Authentic Self of the human person and is a fundamental and objective concept that can be discerned by observing the history of humankind in the pursuit of human dignity. That means, we can look at the material history of humankind and we can see ourselves striving to recognize our Authentic Self.

Our Lady of Springs Catholic Church in French Lick, Indiana (P. Smith)

What is Truth? The Authentic Self

          “The meaning of life is simple, folks,” I tell my students. “Figure out what the Truth of who you are is, live that Truth, and be Truly happy.” They instinctively are dubious of this meaning. It is trite and simplistic. They have heard it a dozen times before in a dozen movies and songs. They may have even believed this ridiculous formula at some point in their young life. “Yeah, Mr. Smith, that’s stupid.” I run a pretty casual class, and they are welcome to be critical, as long as they can be logical about it. I wait to hear the rest of their thought. “It just doesn’t seem like anyone is really happy.” I challenge them to think about how Christian theology might explain it. This is where my students start to do theology: when I ask them how a Christian mindset would understand a given problem.

Capuchin Priest, Basilica of St. Fidelis, Victoria KS (P. Smith)

          I always have two or three students who really Love their Christian identity, and this is the kind of class they have been waiting for. They already learned all the details and facts about Catholic belief and practice, and they may have even done apologetics in another class or in their youth group, but they have never been given a chance to learn how to think rationally and critically about their Faith. “Mr. Smith, Christian theology would say that True happiness is something that happens outside of time and space, and when we say we know the Truth about who we are, that Truth cannot be real because we cannot know the full Truth. So, what you said can be True as long as we don’t pretend to be able to know the Truth of who we are in this world”. It is a little rough, but that is what I like to see in my classes; I like to see my students try to use the concepts and vocabulary that I teach them. This is doing theology. I actually find myself encouraging students to use the vocabulary and concepts from the class. I tell them, “Look, I know you don’t hang out with your friends on Saturday nights, sipping tea and talking about Agape or Eudaimonia or Beatific Vision or Objective and Subjective Truths…so practice here with me; it will prepare you for the test.” Of course, the next Monday I have some smart aleck come to me to say “Guess what we talked about on Saturday night, Mr. Smith!! Look! It’s in my text message history!” I’m convinced they all have the same deep and important thoughts; I just want to give them the words so they can articulate those thoughts.

Hierarchy of Truth: Verbum

Later in this text and in class I discuss the concept of Verbum, but it merits some mention here. Verbum, according to St. Augustine of Hippo, refers to the pure authentic “word” of one’s being. That is, Verbum refers to the Truth of oneself, the Authentic Self, which all humans strive to speak and to hear. It is a Truth that can only be known outside of the limitations of time and space. For Augustine, one spends their life seeking the “word” which fully expresses who they are. The difficulty is, as one discovers a Truth about themselves, time and space have changed them and their “word” has changed as well. As I climb higher and higher out of the Pit, I learn more and more, not about who I am, but about who I was just a few moments before. The only way to fully speak or to hear or to know one’s Verbum, then, is to exist outside of time and space… outside the Pit. From this perspective, I can “hear” the fullness of who I am, at every moment in my life. The Authentic Self is not a single moment of my life; it is the entirety of who I am always becoming. If we apply the epistemological concepts discussed previously, which I have my students do, we must enter into a relationship with one who exists outside of time and space. Therefore, one can only know one’s Authentic Self, perfectly, if one is in relationship with God. It is important to remember, however, that subjective Truths cannot be negated or ignored. The subjective Truths of who we are right now, in this moment and place of time and space are important. As subjective Truths are based upon individual’s relationship with given knowledge, it is subjective Truth that reveals the importance of relationship. As we will explore later, the material world, as a creation of the same God with whom one must enter into relationship in order to learn one’s Truth of Verbum, possesses signs and symbols of God. While I am in the Pit, the ropes that God to throws me can, if I choose to think of them as such, be signs orienting me toward a way out of the Pit; the material Truths I experience in the Pit can, at least, begin to lead me to Objective and Transcendent Truths. Therefore, the material world and material epistemology remain vital for an encounter or relationship with the telos or transcendent Truths insofar as the material world points to greater relationships and Truths through which we can learn our Authentic Self.

Big Bend National Park, South Rim Trail. A place where I have contemplated my own Verbum (Photo Credit: J. Harrington)

I will later discuss the concepts of Truth and the authentic self and how material epistemological concepts like psychology, sociology, and philosophy play important roles in the discovery of the Authentic Self. While many Christian traditions in the past have rejected sciences like psychology, sociology, and even philosophy, fearing that they focus too much on material Truths, I will argue that these sciences actually help to reveal, at least in part, the Authentic Self as it reflects the image and likeness of God. In this way, psychology, sociology and philosophy (and really every science or subject in the world) can be Sacramental.

Henri, Katie, Monk, and me. We begin to discover Verbum most profoundly in relationship. (Photo Credit: P. Smith)