Teleology

From the Pastor’s Study                                   

Teleology                                       

Oct 12, 2022

This past week I ran across a word I had not seen since my seminary days: teleology.  Any time we see the suffix, “ology,” we know that the word means “the study of something.”  Thus, Christology means “the study of Christ” and geology means “the study of the earth” (geo being the Greek word for earth).  If that is the case, then when we teleology we are studying the “telos.”  That’s actually an English word, although I haven’t used it since seminary.  At this point you might ask, “What is he talking about, and why is this important anyway?”

            First, let me explain what “telos” means.  “Telos” has to do with the purpose or goal or end of something.  Thus, the telos of a hockey team is to score goals so that they can win the game.  The telos of a chair, the reason it was created, is to provide us with something comfortable on which we might sit.  (A rock might serve the same purpose, but a rock is a little difficult to use in our dining rooms, so we have created chairs for that purpose.)  When we look at something and ask ourselves why it exists, we usually look at its purpose.  Archaeologists do this all the time when they discover unknown objects.  They ask, “What could this have been used for?”  In one Canadian magazine, the editors have a page on which they show a picture of some object and ask the question, “What is this object?”  They might not know the answer themselves, but they assume that some of their readers may know what it is and will give an answer in which they might name the object (helpful) but also describe its “telos,” its purpose (much more helpful).

            Over the years, I have heard a number of people ask the question, “That is my telos?”  They didn’t use that language of course, but they were asking, “What am I here for?  What is my purpose?”  Some agonize over this question, and if they don’t discover the answer, they begin to find that life is meaningless and empty because they have not discovered their particular role in this world.  We might look at the entire world with its eight billion people going about their routines each day, and we may observe people being born, growing up, then growing old and finally dying, and we may ask, “What is the point of all this?” 

            Often times the telos (the purpose) of a thing is tied to its origins. Thus, we might say that people began to feel a need to sit down to dinner, and to meet that need, someone designed and built a chair.  The chair exists because someone intentionally created it, and its beginnings are tied to its purpose or ends.  Things that are made that have no purpose are seen as being useless and quickly discarded and forgotten.

            But what about the world we live in?  Many believe that the world exists because of random set of events that began with a big bang which resulted in the existence of matter.  That matter happened to form itself into balls of rock, one of them being the earth.  The earth happened to have the right ingredients that enabled life to begin, and that life evolved, unguided, into what we have today.  We might exclaim, “What a fortuitous set of events!”  Unfortunately, when we dig deep into this explanation of the existence of the world, we find ourselves asking, “So what is the purpose of all this?”  If we are here because of a random set of events, then there is no real purpose or telos built into the universe because there was no intentionality at the beginning.  And, if that is the case, then it wouldn’t really matter if we cease to exist or not. 

            On the other hand, if we can say that the universe was designed by someone, we should be able to detect a purpose (telos) in it.  Scripture reveals to us that it was God who designed the universe, and he designed it, not in some random way, but rather, with a defined purpose and goal.  By extension, that means that we also have a telos, a purpose.  But what is it?

            The Westminster Catechism, the Presbyterian counterpart of the Heidelberg Catechism, has as its first question: What is the telos of humanity?  Of course, it doesn’t use those words but, instead asks, “What is the chief end of humanity?”  Or, to put it another way, “Why does we exist anyway?”  The answer is given in one sentence: “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.”  While this means a whole myriad of things, the first meaning is this: that we have a relationship with God in which we honour him and glorify him and that we enjoy the relationship we have with him. By implication we would have to say that unless we have that relationship with God, life loses its telos, its purpose.  God’s primary purpose for our existence is for us to know him, love him, and experience his love for us.  This is why we are here: to enjoy his presence in our lives through which we are provided for all things and, in turn to praise him and honour him as the source of our lives.

            So, in practical application, we should be able to define our telos.  Why are we here?  To have a relationship with our God and to serve him with our lives.  And the end of all things?  That we enjoy life with God forever.  Those who do not recognize God or his role in bringing all things into existence will struggle to find purpose in life.  Sadly, that is the position in which many people find themselves.  Those who are in Christ, however, who have their relationship with God renewed, will have a telos, a goal, an end, a purpose.  It is to know and enjoy our Almighty God.

Pastor Gary