Through the River: Understanding Your Assumptions about Truth

The Book
“Through the River: Understanding Your Assumptions about Truth” is by Jon and Mindy Hirst. The 195 page book was published in 2009 by Authentic Publishing. The back cover states that the book’s subject is Philosophy/Epistemology. The Hirsts use the book to recapitulate the views of the late Paul Hiebert, a missiologist.

Quote
“Every worldview – and there are many out there – has an epistemology built into it” (page 17).

The Good
“Through the River” introduces the general Christian reader to epistemology and what the authors refer to as the three “truth lenses” of Positivism, Instrumentalism and Critical Realism.

The Bad
I found the writing facile and simplistic. The authors wrote the book – ostensibly, at least – to question assumptions about truth – yet they seem incapable of seeing past their own a priori assumptions. These assumptions evidently include the view that the Bible is a magic book dictated by God to man and that Jesus is God incarnate. These may be perfectly appropriate assumptions for a book on Christian living or discipleship, but the back cover of the book indicates that the subject matter is Philosophy/epistemology.

The authors also jump to unsupported conclusions when they say things like “There is no doubt that Jesus is all that we need to know in order to have life” (page 22). Really – no doubt at all? Even a first year philosophy student at a public University would ask “How do you know? And how do you know that you know?” It appears that Jon and Mindy Hirst assume a homogeneous Christian readership. Perhaps that is their target audience; even so, they shouldn’t take for granted that every reader buys into (or is even familiar with) Evangelical Christology.

I read chapter 7 (entitled “Holding Truth Lenses up to the Bible”) in the hopes that the Hirsts would make the case for a Christian epistemology that relies on both faith and reason. I was disappointed to discover instead that the discussion centers on the kinds of Bible verses that Positivists like vs. those favored by Instrumentalists or Critical Realists. There was also way too much proof-texting.

I am not a philosopher, but it seems to me that any book about faith, epistemology and the Bible is deficient unless it includes a discussion about a mystical/prophetic worldview. After all, Christian faith allows for a belief in miracles, angels, spirits and a man who claimed to be God. Do we really think that the author of the Technicolor visions in the book of Revelation was a Critical Realist?

As I read the authors’ uncritical approach to “truth”, I couldn’t help but think of the scene from the Gospel of John in which Jesus says “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”. Pilate asks the famous question, “What is truth?” To this, Jesus gives the only answer possible: silence.

The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that “Through the River” is not worth your time. If you have an interest in epistemology, take a philosophy course at your local college or University. If you have an interest in missions (which appears to be the authors’ true impetus), read a book on missions – not one masquerading as philosophy.