In his earlier volume, Tradition and Authenticity in the Search for Ecumenic Wisdom, Thomas Langan explored the distinctive kinds of truth handed on by explicit traditions and raised the question of integrating these many diverse truth claims into a responsible, meaningful vision of reality. Although experience is always interpreted in the light of our traditions, Being and Truth shows that this does not preclude real access to persons, things, and their interrelationships.
Every subject opens onto the world from a unique point of view.
Each is formed by particular traditions, differing from others in their own times and places. While ever aware of this, Being and Truth seeks to avoid a subjectivist relativism. Langan shows how perspectives of interpretation open on the world in a way that recognizes the presence and claims of otherness. Perceived things and persons make their own demands on the perceiver, calling on the subject for an appreciative response. We can thus attain lasting, usable knowledge of things and principles grounded in the dynamic reality through which we live.