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The Shaping of Rationality: Toward Interdisciplinarity in Theology and Science
... In my own recent work on interdisciplinarity, I have, from a philosophical point of view, rejected the idea that the domain of religious faith and the domain of scientific thought are in any sense exemplified by rival or opposing notions of rationality (cf. Van Huyssteen 1999, 2006. On an epistemological level, this modernist mode of inquiry was of course definitively challenged first by Michael Polanyi, then by Thomas Kuhn and post-Kuhn by various strands of postmodern science. ...
... I have argued that Christian theology, by virtue of its quite specific disciplinary identity and the resulting responsibility to engage in public discourse, can access this level of public engagement only through a carefully crafted model for interdisciplinary reflection (cf. Van Huyssteen 1999, 2006. In the kind of multi-dimensional, integrative interdisciplinary conversation that I will argue for, terms such as 'transversality' and 'contextuality' will take centre stage, and will have the value of identifying shared concerns and points of agreement, and maybe more importantly, of exposing areas of disagreement and putting into perspective a methodology for discussing specific divisive issues. ...
... Secondly, a postfoundationalist notion of rationality should open our eyes to an epistemic obligation that points beyond the boundaries of our own discipline, our local communities, groups or cultures, towards plausible forms of interdisciplinary dialogue (cf. Van Huyssteen 1999). Against this background I have argued for distinct and important differences between reasoning strategies used by theologians and scientists. ...
To provide the historical-theological background to his own intellectual pursuit of interdisciplinary theology, Wentzel van Huyssteen tells his story that was prompted in his student days at Stellenbosch by the then young, newly appointed lecturer Johan Heyns. It sprung from the basic understanding and confrontation with the question: How is theology to be understood as a science? The very question became Van Huyssteen�s most basic research question for his academic career, guided by the deep conviction that Heyns adamantly proclaimed, namely that the content and methodology of theology could never be deduced from �the truth of revelation� itself, but would in fact always be shaped by �a general theory of science�. For Van Huyssteen, this conviction pointed directly to the tentative and hypothetical nature of all theology. It helped him to put into words what would eventually become the defining character of his own theology, namely seeing the intellectual context of theology as a deeply cultural and contextual venture in which the sciences, politics and philosophy would play a defining role. This role is explicated in the article by focusing firstly on the structure of theological solutions, secondly on interdisciplinarity as challenge, subsequently on continuity and change, and lastly on problem-solving within a post-foundationalist theology.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: A post-foundational approach argues for the interdisciplinary character of theology as science. The approach transcends traditional boundaries of theological, philosophical and social reflection, establishing an intellectual context of theology as a deeply cultural and contextual venture.
... Postmodernism opposes enlightened foundational thinking. Calvin O. Schrag and J. Wentzel van Huyssteen seek a new concept of reason, beyond both foundational thinking itself and postmodern antifoundational thinking (Schrag 1992;Van Huyssteen 1999;Stoker 2006: ch. 6.2). ...
... Wentzel van Huysstteen, amongst others, have revisited the notion of rationality in order to broaden its scope to make it encompass ways of thinking in religion and theology (cf. Murphy 1990;Stenmark 1995;Van Huyssteen 1999). Even more recently, in his latest monograph, British theologian Alister McGrath has compared the various notions of rationality operative in the natural sciences and in theology, in order to suggest that there is enough overlap to consider theology as a serious academic endeavour (McGrath 2019). ...
In the recent past, we have seen a parting of the ways of the theological discipline and public universities in many places throughout Western Europe. In this article, firstly, some backgrounds of this development are briefly explored, taking the situation in the Netherlands as an example. Secondly, it is argued that from a Christian – and especially a Reformed – theological point of view that this development is suboptimal and should be regretted. Thirdly, two lines of argument for retaining a place for theology at public and largely secular contemporary universities are investigated: the first one, which attempts to align theology to the natural sciences, is found wanting; the second one, which situates theology in the realm of the humanities, is argued to be largely convincing. Following this finding, a case study was offered of how a theological faculty or department could be (re)structured in such a way that – without turning it into an allegedly ‘neutral’ religious studies department – it continues to occupy a viable place within contemporary public universities. It is argued that theological faculties might have to open up to a variety of religious perspectives (rather than hosting just one religious tradition) both for epistemic and political reasons. Finally, a brief suggestion was made as to how such a development might be justified from a Reformed theological perspective.
... The distribution of these two inventories, therefore, is aimed at increasing our awareness of this research's epistemic duty to move beyond the boundedness of practical theology as a discipline, our specific privileged communities, cultures and so forth, as to engage in a reflective and effective interdisciplinary discussion which enhances our understanding of this phenomenon (cf. Meyer 2014:3-4;Müller 2005:76-77;Van Huyssteen 1999). Chitando (2013:667) supports this movement in the justification of the move towards Africanisation, where masculinities and religion as a theme should be placed right in the centre of the study of religion and spirituality in Africa as to adequately describe the 'lived realities of Africans' as the only vehicle for transformation. ...
This article narrates the researcher’s intention in using a mixed methodology for investigating the correlation between two key research concepts that form part of a larger research study. The larger study aims to reflect on how South African men understand their masculine role from and within their specific religion/spirituality by measuring the nature of the relationship between the constructs of masculine ideology and religious orientation in the development of a male gender identity. Subsequently, the first level of exploration includes the distribution of two inventory scales to a wide selection of men in South Africa for determining the nature and degree of correlation between the two concepts of ‘masculinity’ and ‘religiosity/spirituality’ from this specific sample of men. The research question to be answered is as follows: is there a correlation between the results of the two inventory scales (Masculine Attitude Norms Inventory II/Masculinities Representations Inventory [MANI II/MRI] and Religious Orientation Scale – Revised [I/E-Revised]) which measures male attitude norms, on the one hand, and religious orientation, on the other hand, of a selected sample of South African men? This question is answered through the administration of two widely validated and reliable inventory scales aimed at measuring male ideology and representations and religious orientation, respectively. Consequently, the researcher aims to motivate her choice of employing these scales before a post-foundational practical theological and narrative approach to research is used in ‘thickening’ the discourses resulting from these inventories, and narrates what she aims to achieve through the employment of these specific methodologies. Therefore, this article does not aim to narrate any research findings but forms part of Phase 1 of the larger research project delineated into different phases. The researcher concludes with a suggested research methodology, which aims at the decolonisation of the constructs of masculinity and religiosity and/or spirituality in the specific context of postcolonial and post-apartheid South Africa.
... Critical realism stands in a middle position between epistemological absolutism and epistemological relativeness (Louw 2016:104) -in Van Huyssteen's terms in his approach, called postfoundational (cf. Van Huyssteen 1999). In this way, critical realism in a practical theological realism connects science and wisdom in a fruitful exchange of knowledge. ...
In this article, I present a critical literature study of the theoretical approach of practical theologians in South Africa to our discipline, in honour of Yolanda Dreyer on her 60th birthday. Some of my colleagues’ approaches at the universities of Stellenbosch, Free State, Pretoria, Unisa and NWU (Potchefstroom campus) are discussed. All of them work with practical theological hermeneutics. The basic hermeneutic approach of Daniël Louw is widened with an integrated approach by Richard R. Osmer in which practical theology as a hermeneutic discipline also includes the empirical aspect which the action theory approach has contributed to the discussion. After discussing Louw’s basic hermeneutic approach, all the other colleagues who basically accepted Osmer’s approach in their publications are discussed. Important and new ground is being broken by contemporary colleagues, including research in public practical theology, without neglecting the focus on Christian congregations, and new work is being done at the grass roots level of African issues in our country.
Arguments for humans and animals existing in the imago Dei derive from a desire to harmonize Genesis 1:26-28 and alleged scientific views derived from an evolutionary system. An accurate analysis of biblical anthropology reveals the uniqueness of humankind in the areas of distinctiveness ("of which there is only one ") and superiority ("standing alone in comparison with others, frequently by reason of superior excellence" ).1 Considering the attempts to augment the biblical concept of the imago Dei, this paper argues humanity alone resides in the distinct status of being created in the image of God. Three sections will substantiate the unique design of humanity. First, a presentation of the historical view of the imago Dei. Second, an examination of evolution's influence on the biblical rendering of the origin of humanity, human distinctiveness, recasting anthropology, and inferior groups. Third, emphasis on biblical anthropology in Genesis 1:26-28 that culminates with the offering of the lesser for the greater through divination and sacrifice.
In the preceding Part 1 of this two-part paper, I set out the background necessary for an understanding of the current status of the debate surrounding the relationship between science and religion. In this second part, I will outline Ian Barbour’s influential four-fold typology of the possible relations, compare it with other similar taxonomies, and justify its choice as the basis for further detailed discussion. Arguments are then given for and against each of Barbour’s four models: conflict, independence, integration and dialogue. In contradiction of the recent trend to dismiss the conflict model as overly “simplistic”, I conclude that it is the clear front-runner. Critical examination reveals that theology (the academic face of religion) typically proceeds by first affirming belief in God and then seeking rationalisations that protect this belief against contrary evidence. As this is the very antithesis of scientific endeavour, the two disciplines are in unavoidable and irreconcilable conflict.
Science and religion have been described as the “two dominant forces in our culture”. As such, the relation between them has been a matter of intense debate, having profound implications for deeper understanding of our place in the universe. One position naturally associated with scientists of a materialistic outlook is that science and religion are contradictory, incompatible worldviews; however, a great deal of recent literature criticises this “conflict thesis” as simple-minded, essentially ignorant of the nature of religion and its philosophical and theological underpinnings. In this first part of a two-part article, I set out the wide-ranging background required for a proper understanding of the debate as a preliminary for the second part, in which Ian Barbour ’s influential four-fold typology of science-religion relations is critically assessed, leading to the conclusion that the conflict model is not to be so easily dismissed.
The crisis of meaning, as one of the characteristics of modern world, was investigated mainly from a philosophical perspective considering necessary and sufficient conditions of the meaning of life, without regard to crucial social transformations of modern era, which led to this crisis. Focusing on the process of changes in knowledge and consciousness, here I show that in modern world as a result of developments in science, for the first time the natural or scientific consciousness seriously confronts supernatural or religious consciousness. The argument is that as a result of this plurality of consciousness, the basic characteristics of man, i.e., identity, self and rationality have changed. The main idea of this article is that based on such an explanation of the crisis of meaning in which consciousness and knowledge are pivotal, the solution resides in reconsidering modern rationality in order for these two consciousness to be united and the crisis to be cured.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) moment has stimulated multiple intellectual attempts to make sense of the pandemic. The complexity of the challenge obviously requires an interdisciplinary approach. The specific problem explored in the article is the question whether a dialogue between Virology and Philosophy of Biology on the one hand and theology on the other may open new possibilities for understanding the very nature of reality. The point of departure is that the interdisciplinary conversation is a practice of negotiation and not of addition. New developments in Virology are narrated and the conventional association of viruses as mere pathogens is countered with an appreciation of their age, abundance and evolutionary impact. The discipline of Philosophy of Biology is included in the conversation to underline the metaphysical consequences of thinking about viruses. In the theology of creation, interpretations which resist equating viruses merely as natural evil are narrated. The central proposal of the article, transpiring from the conversation, identifies the notion of equivocity as fundamental description of reality. This ontological insight may do justice to contemporary Virology and to the sense of Mystery in theology and the Christian doctrine of creation.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The article is an explicit attempt to engage two disciplines of the natural science – Virology and Philosophy of Biology, and theology. Contemporary developments in the state of scholarship of these disciplines are mentioned. A basis in ontology is proposed for the conversation, and a central insight transpiring from the disciplines is suggested – that of equivocity. An interdisciplinary conversation may give rise to a more nuanced insight into the nature of reality.
The objective of the article was to critique two cognitive strategies used by both proponents of Christian and secular moralities to justify an exclusionary relationship between them, thus contributing to the conflict between them. They are the cognitive strategies of foundationalism and incompatibilism. The objective was also to resume a critical discussion of these two strategies in Wentzel van Huyssteen’s publications. The method followed was, first, to provide a historical reconstruction of the relationship between Christian faith and the secular and, second, a critical analysis of Richard Dawkins’ foundationalist view of secular morality and Stanley Hauerwas’ incompatibilist view of Christian morality. Findings were that influential views of a positive relationship between Christian faith and secular morality are found in history, and that the foundationalist view of Dawkins and the incompatibilist view of Hauerwas are both untenable and contextually inappropriate. This led to the conclusion that there is no justification for the view that Christian morality and secular moralities necessarily exclude one another. The remaining challenge to find an alternative approach that would allow for a more positive relationship between these two moralities and provide guidance on adaptations they need to make was also identified.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The Christian ethical research undertaken in the article drew on research findings in the fields of Christian Ethics, Church History, philosophy, evolutionary ethics and psychology. Research results present Christian and philosophical ethics with the challenge to find an acceptable alternative for the problematic foundationalist and incompatibilist approaches.
In light of the heavy criticisms that have historically been leveled against the design argument, the idea of salvaging something of value from the biological design argument can seem preposterous and even dangerous. Questions related to the problem of the God of the gaps, the relationship of faith and reason, and the nature of science lurk in the background. This chapter lays out some of the core background assumptions that inform the book, and argues in favor of the theological value of the idea of design as part of our understanding of nature. It also defends the general necessity of a philosophical and theological assessment of this issue, in contrast to scientistic views.
The purpose of this book is to engage challenging issues that are called into question during ministerial training. This is a volume presenting eleven contested issues that attend to concerns related to structures, processes, knowledge and practices within theological education. Contributors offer keen insights about how to think differently and more complexly about these matters within a changing South Africa. It is an affirmation of the multiple voices, locations, identities and positions within South African theological education, as a starting point for transformative theological education. It is hoped that these reflections can enable future ministers to confront the question of how to be in the world with the required competence, integrity and professional identity to meet the needs of church and society.
Analogical models in science enable us to understand unobservable theoretical entities. We need this basic understanding, even in the case of mental phenomena, where multiple cognitive principles are involved. In this article, we suggest an analogical model of cognition that incorporates basic insights from the philosophies of science and theology, which could serve as a point of contact for the dialogue between science and theology. For this purpose, we presuppose six stages of understanding and the existence of six different theoretical cognitive principles that have their own characteristics, which coincide with some Biblical characters, theological reflections and scientific approaches to finding the truth. The choice of the analogical model and the cognitive principles is justified with their ability to organize, structure and make sense of different segments of scientific and theological knowledge, which otherwise seem confused, unrelated and without structure. The analogical model gives us a big picture of their relations and confirms the ability of the observable macroworld and phenomenological experience to assist us in understanding the realities that, at first sight, seem incomprehensible.
Discernment integrates spiritual and religious values, wisdom, and sensibilities into decision making. What can spiritual and religious traditions of discernment contribute to management and organizations? A set of authors has responded to this question and offered initial empirical evidence. This article identifies and reviews research on discernment in management and organization studies, and clarifies the nature and location of discernment within the field. It also draws together writings on discernment from outside the field, organizes their coverage according to three units of analysis – processes, practices, and meetings – and elaborates the details of discernment within each. The literature review and conceptual development offered here sets the stage for further advances in discernment research and extending discernment in management and organizations.
This article combines an appreciation of several themes in Josh Reeves's Against Methodology in Science and Religion: Recent Debates on Rationality and Theology while arguing in favor of critical realism. The author holds that critical realism manages to combine the objective truth reached through inference and especially cognitive acts of judgment as well as the various, contingent historical contexts that also define where science is practiced. Reeves advocates a historical perspective, but this article claims that in order for critical realism to be credible, a philosophical perspective must be maintained.
This thesis explores the phenomenon of life coaching within the context of Pastoral Theology. The problem that the study addresses is that people involved in the Christian helping professions are equipped with counselling skills, but they are not equipped with the life-coaching skills available to assist people with the planning, implementation and feedback processes necessary to experience personal and spiritual growth in their lives.
This second of three articles outlining the development and practice of a different approach to neurotheology discusses the construction of a suitable methodology for the project based on the work of J. Wentzel van Huyssteen. It explores the origin and contours of his concept of postfoundational rationality, its potential as a locus for epistemological parity between science and religion and the distinctive and unique transversal space model for interdisciplinary dialogue which he builds on these. It then proposes a further development of the model which has the potential to produce a very different type of additional and original dialogical outcome. While such “transversal” outputs may initially seem counter and strange they not only flow naturally from the models’ own inherent dynamics but also open up the possibility of a distinctively different form of neurotheology.
Scholars have been defining adolescence throughout the history of youth ministry, but the nature and function of the term’s application has often remained unexamined. The practice of diagnosis provides the appropriate metaphor for the activity in which practitioners and theologians engage when they apply “adolescence” to the experience of young people. Drawing from the field of disability theology, the author exposes some of the potential dehumanizing pitfalls of a diagnostic approach and seek to reorient youth ministry toward the Christological praxis of caring for young people as opposed to the diagnostic practice of resolving or “curing” adolescence.
In a seemingly worldwide development faith traditions are seeking to redefine their relationships with national and local cultures. This process specifically includes information, archival, knowledge, and library cultures in academic and professional environments. Such encounters can be complex in nature and involve several gradations of adherence to differing secular and religious paradigms or mental models. As evidenced by the anglophone literature, North American academic theorists in information studies and librarianship, categorized by the American Library Association as library and information studies (LIS), have seldom addressed this reality. This intellectual circumvention is seen as traceable to such long-standing factors as (a) the continuing influence of traditional models of secularization theory; (b) the historic reluctance of professors in multicultural, multi-belief universities to risk possible domination by sectarian influences; and, more problematically, (c) the existence of overreaching stereotypes held about religious adherents by other scholars. Such factors sustain ongoing communication misunderstandings. From a secular standpoint the essay addresses this deficiency through providing culturally pragmatic formulations which, under appropriate conditions, can support information and library researchers working with faith-influenced scholars in theory development collaborations. The author hypothesizes that aspects of an analyzed North American experience may be helpful in other developed cultures where multi-cultural realities require bridging secular-religious divides to facilitate cooperation in addressing significant library, information, archival, and knowledge issues involving faith communities.
What does the Lutheran systematic theologian from South Africa, Klaus Nürnberger, find ‘ourselves to be’, that is, what is his viewpoint on anthropology? Nürnberger has recently taken on the task of formulating anew his anthropological viewpoint in his two-volume Faith in Christ today(2016). I will focus on this publication as well as an earlier publication on anthropology, namely ‘Dust of the ground and breath of life (Gn 2:7): The notion of “life” in ancient Israel and emergence theory’ (2012). Having discussed his rich and broadly science-theology–defined anthropological viewpoint on ‘what we find ourselves to be’, only one dimension of ‘more than dust’ is critically engaged with, namely his understanding of the ‘emotive’ or ‘affective’ dimension of being human. From contemporary neuroscientific viewpoints on emotions as well as philosophical viewpoints on the layeredness of affectivity, I critically engage with Nürnberger’s viewpoint.
Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The question of being human (philosophical anthropology) is addressed within the context of the contemporary science–theology dialogues on anthropology. The critical question on the undervalued role of affectivity within Klaus Nürnberger’s perspective is asked from insights from neuroscientific and philosophical viewpoints on emotions and affectivity.
Biblical hermeneutics and New Testament exegesis have been based mostly on a rational approach and executed by means of cognitive methods. Feminist exegetes, female and male, who have pointed out the need for a hermeneutics of suspicion when exploring the wisdom, role and contribution of women in the Bible and have developed exegetical methods from this perspective, have also mostly done so by means of rational epistemologies. This article explores a “hermeneutics of affect” as an example of alternative “ways of knowing” to revisit some narratives on Jesus and women. A hermeneutics of affect is explained by making use of insights of Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Schleiermacher and William James, whose epistemologies show an appreciation for affect and experience. From such a broadened rationality the article illustrates Jesus's disposition of respect for the full personhood of all people, including women.
In recent decades, there have been calls to open university research and learning through transdisciplinarity. The inference here is that the increased specialisation of disciplines has created isolation, division, exclusion, separation and fixity within research and learning. This chapter explores the potential for openness in university research and learning through a discussion of the relationality of transdisciplinarity and disciplinarity. An examination of this relationality is valuable, given that transdisciplinarity and disciplinarity are intimately connected and co-dependent. This relationality is explored through two concepts that we argue constitute its potential to create openness in university research and learning: pliability and transversality. This chapter argues that disciplines, be they science, planning, law, health or religion, manage to be both open to change, constantly becoming-other, and universal, abstract, and eternal. Whilst this pliability of disciplinarity is often translated as disciplinary inadequacy, we argue that this pliability is a valuable component of disciplinarity, and that it provides the site for the transversality of transdisciplinarity. We explore these concepts through reference to a recent problematization of disciplinary research and learning at the human and environment nexus, which has given rise to the notion of planetary health, and its call for a substantial and urgent opening of research and learning to understand and address emerging geo-social assemblages such as the Anthropocene.
As with many human desires, transhumanist hope often lapses into transhumanist hype, but that recognition usually seems to come from those who fear the prospects. As a result, denunciations are frequently as vague as they are dismissive. Yet, despite potential benefits in the transhumanist agenda, there are legitimate reasons for questioning some of its particular projections and doing so can help distinguish between the hope and hype. Focusing on inherent limitations to cognitive enhancement, for instance, is instructive because that arena is so intimately connected to personhood and is also the gateway to other envisioned forms of improvement. Identifying those restrictions is also germane to considerations of Christian engagement with the realities of a transhumanist future—a future whose “superior” beings can never escape faith.
A desperate need for employee wellness is echoed in work-related stories. Workplace spirituality is presented as an integral part of achieving and maintaining employee wellness. However, there is an observed gap of spirituality in employee wellness programmes and in the absence of the workplace spiritual helper in multidisciplinary wellness teams. Using a postfoundational notion of practical theology, I have explored one of the reasons for this gap, namely workplace spirituality�s association to religion. When spirituality is viewed through the lens of religion, it is overlooked as a vehicle of help. This is a consequence of the obstacles of the taboo of religious discussion, the complexity of religious plurality, the dominant voice of secularism and unhelpful religiosity. A proposal is made for a definition of spirituality that describes the relationship between spirituality and religion that overcomes the religionrelated obstacles to the development of workplace spirituality and so enable spirituality�s contribution in wellness.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The research includes an interdisciplinary collaboration with a Human Resource (HR) manager, social worker, arts therapist, clinical pastoral counsellor, medical practitioner, psychologist, businessperson and two psychiatrists that underscores the collaborative effort in wellness. There is an intradisciplinary challenge to those who restrict the view of spirituality to the experience of religion.
This chapter introduces the central proposition of the book – that therapeutic change and transformation are geographical in nature. A brief outline of the book and its contents follows, before turning briefly to the process of ‘thinking through practice’.
South Africa is known as the rainbow nation because of its variety of culture and religion. In essence South Africa is a spiritual nation, and 85.7% of her people affiliate to a Christian belief system. Despite this, crimes against women and children run rampant as some traditional male roles advocate patriarchal values that at times negatively affect relations between men and women. This article postulates that specific patriarchal values inform the development of a masculine identity, in spite of the fact that most South African families are headed by female caregivers. At the same time, however, most of these families are affected by extreme poverty and father absence; therefore, many boys are raised without an adequate male role model. This article, emanating from a broader study, explores the relationship between the development of a masculine identity amidst father absence, influenced by rapid colonisation and in the context of a specific religion and culture. It reflects on some of the narratives of the research participants that relates specifically to the theme of ‘what it means to be a real man’, eliciting the dominant discourses around masculinity and femininity in South Africa, informed by religion, traditional culture and pop culture. This article then postulates that religiosity in South Africa is not removed from the social function and performance of the social constructs of masculinity, cultural values and parental involvement and that these constructs interact with each other in a special way to produce what we come to know as the South African man.
Critical realism (CR) has served as a benchmark in science-theology dialogue as a way of determining similar rational structures in these disciplines. One implication has been that Theology has a parallel form of verification to that of the natural sciences. However, defenders of CR in Theology have not clarified how this might be the case and so critics of CR have noted numerous alleged shortfalls in thinking of Theology objectively from a pragmatist perspective. This paper describes some of these criticisms, especially the more nuanced perspective of J. Wentzel van Huyssteen, whose concern for hermeneutics and epistemology is well suited to CR. Taking several cues from the theory of retroduction in the work of philosopher of science Ernan McMullin and the philosopher theologian Bernard Lonergan, this paper proposes a more explanatory form of CR that takes hermeneutical issues seriously while also retaining a cognitive focus on judgment. It is the capacity to judge, in the form of verified theories in science and theological doctrines, where a true parallel exists between theology and the natural sciences. The paper ends by noting a number of themes in Lonergan’s magnum opus Method in Theology, where theological doctrines are capable of being explanatorily true whilst remaining subject to revision, analogous to the status of verified theories in the natural sciences.
This book looks at the church from a historical, hermeneutical, empirical and strategic perspectives, in light of the crisis churches are experiencing. This contribution departs from the premise that churches of the reformed tradition functions primarily within a pastoral mode of being church. It is necessary to change the systemstory on the basis of a missional ecclesiology.
We are living in a time of unprecedented challenges: human activity is now the primary driver shaping the planet and we are perilously close to breaching a variety of critical planetary boundaries—a prelude to the possible extinction of our species. How should we be thinking and acting—as persons, communities, institutions and societies—so as to best understand and respond to these challenges? What contribution can the field of science and religion make to develop the knowledge needed to negotiate the civilizational transition we face? Such questions were addressed through a series of dialogues at the 62nd annual conference of the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science in June of 2016—“How Can We Know? Co-Creating Knowledge in Perilous Times.” This essay sets the background to these challenges and introduces the set of articles in this themed section.
On a cultural level, and for Christian theology as part of a long tradition in the evolution of religion, evolutionary epistemology “sets the stage,” as it were, for understanding the deep evolutionary impact of our ancestral history on the evolution of culture, and eventually on the evolution of disciplinary and interdisciplinary reflection. In the process of the evolution of human knowledge, our interpreted experiences and expectations of the world (and of the ultimate questions we humans typically pose to the world) have a central role to play. What evolutionary epistemology also shows us is that we humans can indeed take on cognitive goals and ideals that cannot be explained or justified in terms of survival-promotion or reproductive advantage only. Therefore, once the capacities for rational knowledge, moral sensibility, aesthetic appreciation of beauty, and the propensity for religious belief have emerged in our biological history, they cannot be explained only in biological/evolutionary terms. Finally, in this way a door is opened for seeing problem solving as a central activity of our research traditions. As philosophers of science have argued, one of the most important shared rational resources between even widely divergent disciplines is problem solving as the most central and defining activity of all research traditions. As will become clear, the very diverse reasoning strategies of theology and the sciences clearly overlap in their shared quests for intelligible problem solving, including problem solving on an empirical, experiential, and conceptual level.
The publication of several series of theological commentaries since the year 2000 marked theentrance of the discipline Theological interpretation of the Bible on the hermeneutical front. Alack of well-developed methodological considerations, underlying the practice of Theologicalinterpretation of the Bible has, however, handicapped the theological interpretation of Bibletexts. It is the aim of this article to contribute to the development thereof. Three meta-hermeneutical aspects that make up the broad methodological foundation of Theologicalinterpretation of the Bible, namely metaphysics, epistemology and ethics are explored.
In this article, the author asks why the South African public, especially Afrikaans communities, is largely unaware of the knowledge generated in the field of science and religion. The author describes theologies as complex systems that interact with their environment. To illuminate the environment, the author turns to the theatre system and illustrates how the theatre system can illuminate the modelling choices of theologians.
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