ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the aspects of the issue that arise in connection with various Christian claims and practices and confines remarks largely to the interconnections and interdependence. It provides a kind of case study of the problem of religion and realism as it appears in connection with some of the central claims of Christian faith concerning the 'ultimate reality' with which we humans have to do. In our western religious traditions this pervasive mystery –to which our limitations of understanding and knowledge call attention –has often been given the name God; and in affirmations that God is 'absolute' or 'infinite', 'ineffable' or 'transcendent', believers have reminded themselves that this One whom they worship must be understood. The constructivism that underlies and makes necessary human faith in no way threatens this conviction. Moreover, recognizing that all our ideas about God are our own imaginative constructs helps protect us from reifying these ideas into idols, which we then mistakenly worship and serve.
