CRITICAL REASON AND FAITH: THE CONTRIBUTION OF RICOEUR'S HERMENEUTICS.

The current age of Postmodernist discourse involves a critique of various forms of oppression. These can take the form of grand narratives, foundations, and the belief in various forms of inflexible truth. But the traditional religious discourse -- with its attempts to understand faith and reason and its reliance on unique singular truths -- can easily lead to charges of dogmatism. So the question is whether religion thought is sufficiently well-equipped for opening itself to postmodern thought which tends to be analogous, flexible and tolerant of a plurality of meanings. This paper will enlist the aid of Ricoeur's critical hermeneutics to show how traditional religious discourse can adapt to the postmodern age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]