Interesting thoughts, C. Leon. I'm not sure how anyone can claim to "know God," but I agree the effort to do so is very personal. Yet, isn't it also communal? This may be a silly example but there is a church in the town I grew up that made the absolute best potato salad. All weddings and funerals and other special events featured this potato salad. The grand older women of the church, including my mother-in-law guarded the recipe closely. After she died, our three adut children, all foodies of one kind or another, decided they needed to decode it. They each set about trying to replicate the taste and find the recipe. As they did so, they shared the results, their process and together discussed which attempt was closest. Maybe there is no analogy here but for me the process of attempting to come closer to a unified view of what I believe to be true has benefited greatly from engagement with others, mostly books, for sure, but discussions and more recently on Medium. So, seeking a satisfying personal theology is both intensely personal but necessarily communal I think.