1814. According to the Enlightenment . . .

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According to the Enlightenment, each human being is related to every other, as well as to all other beings and to the encompassing whole of reality as such, as a rational mind, capable not only of making or implying various kinds of claims to validity, but also, and above all, of critically validating all such claims—ultimately, by one kind or another of rational argument involving appeal to common human experience. Given this capacity, a human being is also responsible for thinking and speaking (construed as including doing as well as saying) in accordance with experience and reason; and this means insisting that all claims without exception be critically validated by the appropriate kinds of rational argument as and when they become sufficiently problematic to require such critical validation.

According to the Christian religion, each human being is related to every other, as well as to all other beings and to the encompassing whole of reality as such, as an existing self, capable both of trust and loyalty and of distrust and disloyalty in all its relations to others and to the whole. Given this capacity, a human being is responsible for entrusting her- or himself to the whole and being loyal to it, as well as to all to whom the whole itself is loyal, which is to say, to all—period. And this means using all things, including reason and the results of rational argument, as the tools of such loyalty, and thus of love and justice.

n.d.; 31 October 2001