Theology of religion

[Extract] Theology may be the least helpful discipline to explore the enduring presence of religion in human societies and cultures. After all, theology is a religious discipline and may be too closely attached or implicated in that which it seeks to study. Maybe disciplines such as philosophy or psychology or anthropology or sociology are better suited to address the question of religion – at least they can maintain a certain objective distance of ‘studying religion’, without necessarily being implicated or religiously oriented themselves.

On the other hand, maybe theology is well suited to address the question of religion in human cultures because it shares in the phenomenon it seeks to understand, without the stricture of science’s ‘objectivity’. Standing within a subject-matter of inquiry can often lead to better understandings than standing ‘aloof’ and objectively detached.

To stand ‘within’ something means we are implicated in our inquiry. This can often lead to better results of understanding than when we attempt to be distanced and analytical observers. My approach in this essay is not a scientific one – a ‘study of religion’ – my approach is a theological one,whichmeans that religion need not only be studied from the ‘outside’, but can also be fruitfully understood from the ‘inside’.