ABSTRACT
This chapter is a search for what we can say about “truth,” what limitations if any we can expect to encounter on this journey, and what our options are if any in encountering such limitations. Does the concept of “pure reason” have any purchase? Are there limits to ecumenical strategies in religion, science, and everyday life? In engaging these questions, the author discusses how he became programmed for criticism. The chapter introduces one of the key ingredients required for understanding religious texts: veiled writing, writing that in a single narrative speaks two different truths, one to the initiated and one to the uninitiated. The author takes time out for an interlude that explains the meaning of the “journey to the past” and the “journey to the east.” In the closing sections, the author discusses the relationship between sociology and theology and theology after Durkheim. The chapter concludes with a discussion of postmodernism, fundamentalism, and science.
