Theology Under Siege: Reflections of a Troubled Philosopher and a Believer

Abstract

The transposition of the theological expression into the framework of epistemology suggested by the contemporary philosophy of science is a long-desired project. The presented article offers an overview of the different epistemological and methodological issues that arise when this expression is carried out in the common sense paradigm. It turns that once the necessary change into the mode of knowledge acquisition of contemporary science is made, one can significantly improve theology’s both methodological and conceptual foundations. In particular, this concerns the use of abstract concepts to better penetrate the intricacies of the Divine nature as well as the non-classical logics to improve theology’s inferential basis. The resulting question of the contextuality of theology, namely, its dependence on the conceptual framework and the picture of the world, is also surveyed. Consequently, theology can be perceived as a lexically open project. In conclusion it is argued that while the contemporary theology should retain its common sense exposition for the pastoral and catechetical purposes that allows for the efficient transmission of faith through intuitive knowledge, the state-of-the-art theological research must reach out to to abstract conceptual frameworks to assure the depth of its penetrative insight.