On the Making of Truth: Truthmakers and Theological Hyperintensionality
Quaeritur
Utrum veritas theologiae requirat veritatem facientia (truthmakers) quae non tantum determinent extensionem enuntiationum sed ipsam rationem, modum, et causam secundum quam enuntiationes theologicae verae sunt; et utrum haec veritatem facientia sint hyperintensionalia, id est, finioris resolutionis quam illa quae per modum possibilitatis vel extensionis explicari possunt.
Whether the truth of theology requires truthmakers that determine not only the extension of theological claims but the very reason, manner, and cause by which such claims are true; and whether these truthmakers must be hyperintensional, that is, finer-grained than any account reducible to modal or extensional equivalence.
Thesis
In theological discourse, two claims may share an extension yet differ in truth because Spiritus Sanctus determines felicity and actus Dei determines truth. Thus truthmakers in theology must be more fine-grained than possible-world semantics or classical extensional identities.
Locus Classicus
Ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν.
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
This is a paradigmatic case of truthmaking: the claim “God is with us” is true because God has acted, not because of a description of the world’s extension. No possible world analysis captures the ontological fact that God has joined Himself to flesh. The truthmaker is the very event of incarnation, not a set of worldly facts.
2. “Fiat lux. Et facta est lux.” — Genesis 1:3
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים יְהִי אוֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר
“God said ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.”
Here divine speaking is truthmaking: verbum is res. The statement “light exists” is true because of a specific divine act. Not all causes producing the same extension could be the truthmaker of this theological claim.
3. Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate 1.1
“Veritas est adaequatio rei et intellectus.”
But in theology, the adequation is not passive comparison; it is acheived through divine causation: adaequatio fit per actum Dei constituens ipsum esse rei.
4. Cyril of Alexandria, In Joannis 1.9
Ὁ λόγος ἀληθεύει τὰ ῥητὰ ποιῶν.
“The Word makes true what is spoken.”
A direct witness to theological truthmaking.
Explicatio
While XLVIII distinguished internal truth (felicity of faith’s language) and external truth (adequation to divine reality), XLIX specifies the metaphysical principle by which external truth occurs, that is, that truth is made true by divine acts.
Why Theological Truth Requires Truthmakers
In theology:
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A proposition’s extension does not fix its truth.
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“God forgives” and “God elects” may apply to the same set of saved persons yet differ profoundly in reality.
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The causal grounding matters:
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Forgiveness is a specific act of mercy, not merely an outcome.
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The mode of divine presence matters:
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Christ’s Eucharistic presence is not interchangeable with omnipresence, though extensionally both may involve presence.
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The source of felicity matters:
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Statements authorized by the Spirit differ even if extensionally identical with statements not authorized.
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This yields a hyperintensional truth-structure.
Hyperintensionality Explained
A context is hyperintensional when:
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substitution of co-referential terms changes truth,
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substitution of necessarily equivalent propositions changes truth,
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grounding, not just extension, determines truth.
Theology is hyperintensional because:
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Divine acts differ in their inner form, not only in outcome.
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Participation is specific and non-interchangeable
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Felicity (Spirit-authorization) cannot be replaced by mere semantic equivalence.
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Truth is identical with being only in God, not creatures.
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Revelation determines the mode of truth, not merely the result.
Thus theology inevitably operates at a finer semantic grain than any modal logic.
Objectiones
Ob I. Truthmaking violates divine simplicity by treating divine acts as distinct truthmakers.
Ob II. Hyperintensionality undermines classical semantics and threatens coherence. Truth should depend only on the world, not on modes of presentation.
Ob III. Scripture itself often speaks extensionally: “Your faith has saved you.” Why therefore introduce metaphysical machinery alien to the biblical text?
Ob IV. If truth requires divine acts as truthmakers, we risk collapsing into occasionalism or voluntarism.
Ob V. Truthmaking presumes metaphysical realism incompatible with postliberal grammar models of theology.
Responsiones
Ad I. Divine simplicity is not violated, for the truthmaker is God as acting, not “a part” of God. The distinction is one of formal expression, not ontological composition.
Ad II. Hyperintensionality does not threaten coherence, but rather it protects the specificity of divine revelation. Theology cannot collapse distinct divine acts into one extension without losing referential integrity.
Ad III. Scripture’s economy of language does not negate metaphysics. The biblical claim is hyperintensional in that faith saves because it unites one to Christ, not because of abstract extension.
Ad IV. Truthmaking is not voluntarism. It is the grounding of truth in divine being. While voluntarism posits an arbitrary divine decree, truthmaking anchors truth in God’s eternal act.
Ad V. Grammar models (Lindbeck) explain internal felicity but not external reality. Truthmakers bridge that gap without collapsing theology into metaphysics or vice versa.
Nota
Truth in theology cannot be reduced to any of these:
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correspondence
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coherence
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pragmatic usefulness
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communal grammar
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modal possibility
This is the case because none of these capture the specificity of divine causation. Thus, Truth = Felicity + Divine Fact-making. The Spirit authorizes what the Father and Son accomplish. This, however, requires a semantics richer than extension or modality; it requires a hyperintensional semantics grounded in ontological participation.
Determinatio
We determine that:
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Theological propositions require truthmakers in the form of divine acts, not merely worldly facts.
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Truthmakers in theology are hyperintensional, because divine actions differ not only in effect but in internal form.
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The Spirit mediates truth, ensuring that felicity (internal truth) and divine causation (external truth) coincide.
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Theology requires a semantics beyond the modal, for God cannot be captured extensionally.
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Christ Himself is the supreme truthmaker, for in Him every divine act is both form and fulfillment.
Transitus ad Disputationem L: De Causatione Constitutiva
Having shown that divine acts are truthmakers and that theology is hyperintensional, we now ask how such truthmaking occurs in actu, such that a theological statement becomes true through God.
Thus we proceed to Disputatio L: De Causatione Constitutiva: Utrum Divina Actio Ipsum Verum Efficiat where we inquire as to whether the Logos not only makes truths true but constitutes the very ontology in which theological truth obtains.
