Reality as Social Construction

By Rebecca Merrill Groothuis

The following article, “Reality as Social Construction,” was written in about 1995 by Rebecca Merrill Groothuis (1954-2018). It has not hitherto been published, but deserves exposure, since the postmodernist ideas of truth that she explains and refutes are still with us and still challenge Christian truth claims. I recently distributed this essay to my Introduction to Philosophy courses at Cornerstone University. (I wrote a book refuting postmodernism called Truth Decay [InterVarsity, 2000].)

Rebecca, my first wife (1984-2018), was a brilliant author, editor, poet, and musician. She is most known for her work on biblical equality (or egalitarianism) stated in her books, Women Caught in the Conflict (Baker, 1994) and Good News for Women (Baker, 1997). She also co-edited the first editions of Discovering Biblical Equality (InterVarsity, 2004). You can find a number of her articles and reviews online. - Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D.