ORIGINAL RESEARCH

 

Truth, Reason, and Faith in Modern Civilisation: The violence of truth and the truth of violence in modern 'secular' Western civilisation

 

 

Johann-Albrecht Meylahn

Department of Practical Theology, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Correspondence

 

 

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ABSTRACT

What is truth? What is reason? What is faith? These questions have been hotly debated and have been the cause of violence prior to the rise of the modern and so-called secular state. The rise of the modern 'secular' state was founded on the distinction between reason and faith thus bringing to an end the religious violence which was inspired by their respective truths. The concept of truth will be questioned, thus questioning the 'truth' that reason and faith can be neatly separated from each other and consequently that the secular and religious can be separated into neat categories. There is an inherent violence (political, religious and linguistic) inthe Truth(s), be it the truths of either religion or secular reason, namely the originary linguistic violence of truth. This article will ask the question: How can one speak of truth, reason and faith in a modern civilisation and seek ways beyond the violence of truths towards interdisciplinary open dialogue of a democracy still to come?

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