Realist Hope

Taking into consideration analytical continental historical post-modern and contemporary thinkers Insole provides a powerful defence of a realist construal of religious discourse. Insole argues that anti-realism tends towards absolutism and hubris. Where truth is exhausted by our beliefs about truth there is no conceptual space for doubting those beliefs; only a conception of truth as absolute given and accessible can guarantee the very humility sense of fallibility and sensitivity to difference that the anti-realist rightly values. Cutting through some of the tired and well-rehearsed debates in this area Insole provides a fresh perspective on approaches influenced by Wittgenstein Kant and apophatic theology. The defence of realism offered is unusual in being both analytically precise and theologically sensitive with a view to some of the wider and less well-explored cultural ethical and political implications of the debate.