Is there any hope for ‘truth’ and ‘progress’ in theological thinking today?

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Is there any hope for ‘truth’ and ‘progress’ in theological thinking today?
 
Creator van Huyssteen, J. Wentzel
 
Subject — Interdisciplinary theology; Johan Heyns; science of religion; postfoundationalism; evolutionary epistemology; niche construction; religious imagination; problemsolving
Description 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.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2017-11-24
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v38i1.1792
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 38, No 1 (2017); 10 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1792/3334 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1792/3333 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1792/3335 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/1792/3326
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 J. Wentzel van Huyssteen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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