"We do not own the truth... I need the truth of others". Few Reflections on the Meaning of Claverie's Words
Abstract
The essay deals with Pierre Claverie's relation with the truth. It is based on Claverie's position in the study called Humanité plurielle, which states that Christians are not owners of the truth but rather vice-versa, the truth "owns" Christians.
The author asks a question whether this approach isn't overly relativistic. Author analyses On First Philosophy, the work of al-Kindi, a founder of Islamic and Arabic philosophy.
Then he analyzes a passage about grace in Summa Theologica by St. Thomas Aquinas, the letter De modo studendi accredited to St.
Thomas for a long time and finally the work of a medieval reformer Jan Hus. Author uncovers that all the above mentioned thinkers have been defending the autonomy of the truth, the impossibility of its possession but also the chance to approach it.
The essential point is the necessity to admit that truth can be revealed through somebody different.