Imagine we are listening in on a conversation between two young boys debating over which of them has the better dog – each of them offering their arguments to make their case. Boy #1 – “My dad says he had a dog like mine when he was my age, and he said it was the best dog he ever had.” Boy #2 – “Well, my aunt is a veterinarian, and from her experience, dogs like mine are usually the healthiest.” Boy #1 – “Yea, but my neighbor who has trained show dogs his whole life thinks my dog is one of the best breeds he’s ever seen.” And as this conversation continues, it becomes clear that both of them are searching for an authoritative way to clinch the argument . . . even though such an existential debate is far more about each boy’s subjective relationship to their own dog, making each of them the final authority about how they feel about their dog.
This isn’t to dismiss the value and authority of objectivity, rather, it is to simply recognize that there is a hierarchy of significance at play. There’s a difference between asking: “What’s your favorite ice cream?” and “What makes racism immoral?” The one is a simple distinction of inconsequential preference, while the other is of grave moral importance. The one requires nothing more than the authority of personal inclination, while the other seems to require an implied authority beyond the caprice of our opinions. But here’s the problem – in the post-modern framing of the world, the tendency is to assume that our personal opinions about weightier issues require no other authority than how we feel about them.
Here’s the thing – there’s always a criterion of value assessment occurring at every strata of this hierarchy of significance. Think about it – we don’t hold everything as having equal importance. So, in this regard, what is most important to us ends up establishing a criterion for assessing and assigning a pecking order of importance that invariably informs our decision-making process. Therefore, it only follows that at the top of the heap is the thing of most importance, having the highest value and significance. So when you hear someone offering their opinions on politics, ethics, and morality – it’s perfectly reasonable for you to assume a summum bonum (of highest value and good) is somewhere beneath those opinions underpinning them . . . even if that summum bonum isn’t being articulated or extolled at the time.
So, for instance, if I’m asked, “What makes racism immoral?” I won’t be rehearsing aloud my emotional state on how I feel about the topic. I will state my faith belief that we are all created in God’s image, and that our significance and value are immutably established by this transcendent truth. In other words, I will point directly to my summum bonum – the God who calls me his beloved and bids me come and follow in his way, the way of Jesus Christ. It is this very relationship that defines me, and animates everything I do – underpinning my every thought, and making every other relationship I’m in, meaningful and significant . . . in exactly the way you would imagine the highest good (summum bonum) should bring order to everything we value.
So let us worship our King . . .
This is an updated post originally published on Still Chasing Light
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