Time&Eternity

Introduction and Hermeneutical Approach 9
This subjectivism poses a problem for the dialogue between science and
theology that should be taken seriously. It is accompanied by a waning interest
in overlapping questions of truth, because truth is no longer primarily
that which is generally perceived or understood, but rather that which is
individually experienced as true. Truth that is publicly discussed thereby
forfeits part of its relevance, and the question of truth becomes the question
of many truths, the communication of which threatens to splinter into private
milieus. Truth becomes a private matter, whereby it is worthwhile to
remember that “private” is derived from the Latin privare (= to rob, to deprive
of). What is gained here privately is lost there by the community. As a
consequence of this privatization, dialogue cannot simply be conducted as
if there were a public community of values and as if belief and knowledge,
theology and science, were self-evident, major actors on the public stage.
They are not—and, with this knowledge, they are in the same boat. Together
they can discover that they are, not least of all, at the mercy of the power
of economic forces, whose workings are occasionally influenced by very
opaque rationalities. In this situation, they can demonstrate their competence
by opening a forum, a public space for intellectual and social contact.