Abstract

Recent developments in philosophy challenge such traditional goals of knowledge as certainty or objectivity and thus undermine the idea that any one group can have the final truth for all humans. In response, religious thinkers have been developing new styles of theology and religious ethics. The older understanding of truth encouraged an understanding of religions as churchly or sectarian, while the more recent understanding leads to religious styles more like a revision of the sociological categories of sect and denomination. The occasional conflicts between proponents of the two new positions are conflicts over the proper religious response to important cultural changes. This essay examines the characteristics of the two responses to the present situation and looks at some of the issues-academic, moral and theological-which determine the choice of one or the other.