The project is conceived around the following questions:
- Are we living in a post-truth era? If so, what does that mean, and how did we get here? What role have the academy, the media, and religious actors and institutions played in giving way to this moment of “alternative facts,” “fake news,” and irresponsible claims that “truth isn’t truth”?
- How do we move beyond this “post-truth” moment by pursuing truth as a shared aspiration and public good? How shall we conceive truth or recognize it? Is truth reducible to fact? What dangers do we court or avoid if we insist that it is? What is the relationship between facts and values? What is the relationship of personal experience, feeling, or authenticity to truth?
- What resources do theological traditions, religious practices, moral inquiry, and political thought provide for recovering truth in civic life? How do power, authority, law, and force either underwrite or undermine truth claims? Does truth have standing apart from them? What relation does truth bear to objectivity, neutrality, reason, fidelity, beauty, or virtue?
- Is truth singular or multiple? What does it mean to invoke universal or self-evident truths? Is the commitment to truth (or Truth) compatible with seeking or speaking one’s own truth?