My book Truth Be Told: Living Truthfully in a Post-Truth World has just been reviewed at The Gospel Coalition Australia by Amy Isham. Amy writes:
Truth Be Told is excellent for those grappling with anxiety about our culture’s loss of objectivity, refocusing our energy towards the real goal of living with integrity as people of truth. This is a welcome move away from handwringing about our generation’s “feelings over facts” tendencies and gives us something we can work on: our trust in God and growth in holiness. In an age of relativity, people will treasure their “truths”, just as we should treasure our own. As Windsor says in his final chapter:
One of the most important things we’ve seen is this, truth is personal … Even more importantly, truth is about a person[:God, the Father of Jesus Christ…]. (197)
If you’re frustrated with a culture that seems to have abandoned truth, this book will remind you of the beauty of the truth of the Bible. If we want our culture to change we need to be champions of truth, relying on God’s Spirit to bring us into all truth (Jn 16:13) while we long for the Truth to return (Jn 14:1–6). While we wait, we need to evolve beyond finger-pointing and ask God to help us embody the truths we treasure.
Description
Jesus said “the truth will set you free”. But how does this work in a post-truth society like ours?
In Truth Be Told, pastor and scholar Lionel Windsor provides a blend of winsome cultural analysis, keen biblical insight and practical guidance for living well in a confused world. Fearless in its critique but warm and insightful in its solutions, Truth Be Told shows why the gospel of Jesus Christ is the necessary framework for recapturing the very notion of truth. But more than that, the gospel is presented as the ultimate source of hope and freedom in a truth-deprived world.
Truth Be Told shows how the gospel provides both critiques and answers to key questions about truth, while also challenging and assisting Christians to live out those answers in practical ways.
Back cover blurb:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is an almost universal ambivalence towards truth these days. Many even reject the idea that universal truths have any valid place at all in our ‘post-truth’ society.
As Christians, we cannot afford to let our society’s loose relationship with truth influence our thinking, living and speaking. In Truth be Told, Lionel Windsor goes back to the Bible to show how the gospel provides a foundation for both understanding truth and interacting truthfully with our culture. Provocative and timely, this book offers Christians practical help in the task of sharing the truth of the gospel with confidence and conviction.
Contents
Part I: Our truth problem
Ch 1. Fake news: truth in trouble on the world stage
Ch 2. Frankenstein and the robots: truth in trouble in our technology
Ch 3. Small tyrants: truth in trouble in our institutions
Ch 4. ‘Your truth’: truth in trouble in our culture
Ch 5. When postmodern became post-truth: truth in trouble in our minds
Ch 6. We can’t handle the truth: truth in trouble in our hearts
Ch 7. Why can’t we all just tell the truth?
Part II: The word of truth
Ch 8. A post-truth world and the faithful God: the Old Testament
Ch 9. Jesus, full of grace and truth: the Gospel of John
Ch 10. Walking in the truth: 1 John
Ch 11. Speaking the truth in love: Ephesians
Ch 12. Truth on the ground: 1 Timothy
Ch 13. Truth amid pain and tears: 2 Corinthians
Part III: Telling the truth
Ch 14. Believing the truth: faith
Ch 15. Turning to the truth: repentance
Ch 16. Reality check: the seriousness of deception
Ch 17. Habits of truthfulness
Ch 18. Habits of faithfulness
Ch 19. The whole truth? Truth and love in tricky situations
Ch 20. Don’t go into battle without your belt: truth in evangelism
Ch 21. Communities of truth