We daily swim in oceans of passionately embraced opinions about everything from politics and religion to the arts. We elevate personal opinion above all else, as if our perspectives were the authoritative and final word.
But what if there is such a thing as objective reality—a truth that exists independent of our opinions? Does it truly exist, or is it merely a fanciful philosophical idea?
The term “objective” refers to information that is based on facts and free from personal biases and beliefs. “Reality” is the state of things as they actually are, not as they are imagined. Taken together, objective reality is “the state of things as they really are, based on real facts, not influenced by our personal beliefs.”
In Philosophy, Politics, and Objective Truth, Peter van Inwagen offers a helpful reminder:
…the use of the phrase objectively true is generally a kind of reminder: a reminder that there is a world outside us, and that what one says or believes is in most cases true (if it is true) or false (if it is false) in virtue of that world outside us. We have said that what Copernicus said was true just in the case that the earth goes round the sun, and, of course, the earth’s going round the sun is something external to the human mind (and the sun’s going round the earth would be something external to the human mind if that state of affairs obtained). When people use the adjective objective in connection with truth, they use it as a reminder that the truth or falsity of what we say and believe does not in most cases depend on our desires or our hopes or our fears or any of our psychological states.
As van Inwagen beautifully notes, objective reality and truth exist independently of our opinions, desires, and imaginations.
Jesus, the True Objective Reality and Life
The ancient Greek philosophers were keenly interested in discerning the essence of things. Plato developed his concept of the forms—perfect ideas upon which all reality was based.
For Plato, truth was ultimately rooted in abstract ideals. Greek thought also embraced the concept of the logos—divine wisdom implicit in the cosmos, giving order and meaning to the universe.
In the first century A.D., the writer of the Gospel of John fused the concept of the logos with Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God:
In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:1–5).
For John, Jesus is the logos—divine wisdom, the Word that gives order and meaning to the cosmos. Jesus is the objective reality and truth upon which all truth is measured.
He affirmed this when he declared: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6, NASB). In this passage, truth (alētheia) refers to that which is essentially real.
Jesus and Our Modern Condition
If Jesus is the objective reality of creation, then what does this mean for a modern world plagued by war, division, violence and nihilism? It means hope. Even in the noise and confusion of postmodern life, there is an eternal truth to which we can hold.
Christ came to forgive our sins and to transform us into the radiant image of the Imago Dei. He restores the beauty of God’s likeness within us.
We are carved out of the essence of God and possess tremendous potential for virtue and goodness. The God who formed us in our mother’s womb now guides us with love and purpose.
The Logos calls us to work for justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God. With Christ, like St. Brendan the Navigator, we embark on the greatest spiritual adventure of our lives—toward the Isle of the Blessed, a symbol of communion with the Trinity: the ultimate and objective reality of the universe.
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Donald E. Williams is a United Methodist pastor and Duke University graduate. He completed his doctorate at Duke University in 2022 and is the author of An Investigation Into the Relationship Between Aristotelian Eudaimonia and Christian Discipleship: A Thomistic Perspective, Wipf and Stock Publishers.
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