Page History

...

 This means that our basic faith involves (1) a basic supposition that life is ultimately meaningful; (2) a basic question as to how, exactly, we are to understand the meaning of ultimate reality for us so as to understand it authentically and truly, as it really is; and (3) an open commitment to obey --– which is to say, to understand ourselves authentically and truly, because realistically, in accordance with -– whatever we are then given to understand explicitly of the meaning of ultimate reality for us and to lead our lives accordingly. (The three italicized terms are William A. Christian's in Meaning and Truth in Religion .) Taken together with a basic interest in pursuing the basic religious question, these three factors are constitutive both of religious inquiry and of theological inquiry, strictly and properly so-called --– the first being the inquiry constituted at the primary level of living understandingly, of self-understanding and life-praxis; the second being the same inquiry at the secondary level of living understandingly, of critical reflection and proper theory. 

...