Immanuel Kant once observed, “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” One of the most accessed blogs in the world, Crooked Timber, is based on this quote.
I have not been able to track down as yet the source of Kant’s statement and I am not sure exactly what he meant. I do know he maintained that people are incapable of knowing things in themselves, as they really are - the noumena. Rather, people are only able to know the phenomena, things as they appear to be. Maybe Kant had this distinction in mind and he meant to imply that because people inevitably have a crooked or distorted view of reality it is impossible for them to achieve knowledge of the truth. This would also fit in with Kant’s critique of pure reason.
Biblically, as Romans 1 makes plain, human reason is incapable of overcoming the essential idolatry of the human heart which at the most fundamental level has already exchanged the truth for a lie. Human nature is radically corrupted from the start and this involves an essential distortion of our reasoning faculties. Because people do not place value on knowing God as he really is, that is, as he has revealed himself to be, then it is inevitable, so Romans 1 makes clear, that while claiming to be wise we will make fools of ourselves.
However, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, crooked humanity was replaced by “straight” humanity. Here is timber indeed from which something straight can be made. Jesus, as the perfect man, declares without a shred of arrogance, “I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). It is as we are conformed to the likeness of Christ that the crooked is made straight.
Posted June 29, 2009
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