Until the Enlightenment, Western Europe believed that it found truth by listening to the communications of God.  Supernatural revelation, the wisdom of the divine, they believed, was the path to truth, the way to discern the boundaries of light and darkness in the human adventure.
     After the Enlightenment, however, truth became the product of human reason.  Imbued with the "smile of reason," Western Europe set out to create another version of truth.  Their own.

     We live in the Enlightenment's shadows, we all share in its legacy.  And we are grateful for its commitment to restore the role of reason in human affairs.  After all, we are reasoning beings.
     On the other hand, something has been lost:  mystery.  Not the mystery of not knowing everything, but rather the mystery of why we are here.  Reason will tell us how we came to be here, but it will not tell us why we are here.  And our truth will only tell us what we ourselves can decide is true.  It will not tell us why.
     So does the biblical writer observe, "Without revelation [communication from God], we lose our way" (Proverbs 29:18).  We rightly exalt and employ reason.  Yet we should also realize that reason will only tell us so much.  At the end of the day, we still want to know why.
     We want to see reality as it really is.  We want, whether we know it or not, revelation.