I am excited to be doing Theology in a Religious Studies setting because Religious Studies allows me to fill my methodological toolkit with methods from across the disciplines: from Political Science to Sociology to History, Anthropology and Philosophy. I can use sociological research methods, for example, to analyze theological evolution of Christian thought around the world today as a form of properly theological systematization. In short, in the globalized Christian church of the 21st century it has seemed to me the Theology needs some of the analytic power of Religious Studies.
It only occurred to me just the other day to wonder about the opposite direction of exchange: Might Religious Studies be able to benefit from Theology's methodological stores? What would this look like?
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Perhaps the question should be: what is the purpose of a liberal arts university? I believe that if one understands this question, the remainder of their education will fall into place.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to explain it this way...
The sine qua non of education is the mastery of the liberal arts; especially grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Therefore all other areas of knowledge are superimposed over one's liberal arts background. The greater the mastery the greater understanding and implementation of all knowledge.
With that being stated, there is nothing wrong with a liberal arts university (secular or religious) with offering additional areas of knowledge to enhance the education of their responsibilities (by responsibilities I mean the pupils themselves; for it is the job of the institution to foster the liberal arts in their attendees). However, I would caution attending an institution that offers degree programs that differ from its prime mission. Not that these programs or their instructors would intentionally short change one's education; but specialized institutions exist for a reason. Truth of the matter is a seminary would be a better place for one to focus on just theology or religious studies.
Pertaining to your second question, I believe religious studies would be the broad study of the world's religious cults (by cult, I am referring to the cultus or variety of the religions themselves not the sinister or overzealous use of the word). Theology is the systematic study of the specific beliefs pertaining to an individual religion.
Thanks for these thoughts. I definitely think religious studies fits in the liberal arts framework. I'm just not sure how theology does. Seminaries approach religion normatively. They are important for the training of ministers and other religious practitioners and for denominational/confessional definition. Or something like that. Religious studies attempts to approach religion only descriptively without any affiliation with or commitment to a particular faith. Theology sort of seems to fall somewhere in the middle. It can be very normative, but it can also be very descriptive. It needs to be able to be both at various points. So how does that fit into a liberal arts college? I don't know. The divinity school model found at places like chicago, harvard, yale, emory, etc. works pretty well within a university setting, but the liberal arts setting seems a little different. Religious studies fits easily I think, but theology...
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