We instinctively think that what’s most real or true is what has always been the case. Timeless truth means truth that was already true at the dawn of time.
That’s a big problem. It means that nothing that emerges in time is fully real or true. It’s true, only in a manner of speaking, or only if we can see it as an expression or manifestation of something that always was the case.
But it’s a big problem mainly because it’s still in the grip of tragic metaphysics.
For Christianity, the truth is what will always be true. “Jesus rose from the dead” became true after it happened. It wasn’t true on holy Saturday; it became true in time. But it’s “absolute” truth because it will remain forever.
Letters
Joshua T. Katz’s (“Pure Episcopalianism,” May 2025) reason for a theologically conservative person joining a theologically liberal…
The Revival of Patristics
On May 25, 1990, the renowned patristics scholar Charles Kannengiesser, S.J., delivered a lecture at the annual…
The Enduring Legacy of the Spanish Mystics
Last autumn, I spent a few days at my family’s coastal country house in northwestern Spain. The…