The first chapter examines why truth
matters for politics, culture, and faith. It
draws on Plato and Scripture to make a
case for truth, especially Jesus's claim in John 8 that the truth will
set us free. The central concern of this work is the question, Can
we still affirm that truth is a condition for freedom, or has it been
replaced? I begin chapter 1 by arguing not only that we can affirm
truth but that if we are to have a politics that liberates, we must.
Otherwise, despotism, tyranny, and political violence are our most
likely future.
The second chapter examines what may have replaced truth
as a condition for everyday life—power. It asks if power, absent
truth, can set us free. Trumpism, so I shall argue, is a consequence
of trying to make power the condition of freedom. It won't work,
and I'm fearful that post-Trump, our society will fail to reconsider
the attempt to generate freedom from power rather than truth.
Power as the condition for freedom is becoming too baked in to
who we have become.
