Is reality secular? Is adequate knowledge secular? And is that something that has been established as a fact by thorough and unbiased inquiry? Is this something that today’s secular universities thoroughly and freely discuss in a disciplined way? (11)
Mary Poplin wastes no time in establishing the centrality of Dallas Willard’s questions to Is Reality Secular? What is the nature of reality? (InterVarsity Press, 2014). Early in Chapter 1: Truth and Consequences, she relates the story of a seminar in which she asks, “Is reality secular? Is it true?”
Inspired by her first chapter: How would you respond as a student (or possibly as a peer when asked in another context)? Would you set “aside the idea of truth . . .”? Do you lean toward truth as “an idea rather than a description of reality”? Are these questions you feel comfortable raising with peers, as an instructor, in a presentation, among members of your community of faith? What do you consider the relationship of “seeking truth” and “the reason of the university”? (13 – 14)