Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 INTRODUCTION TO A STUDY OF THEOLOGY
- 2 FAITH, BELIEF, THEOLOGY AND REASON
- 3 GOD AS COSMIC PROJECTION
- 4 GOD AS ACTUALIZING REGULATIVE IDEAS
- 5 THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
- 6 THEOLOGY AND THE APPREHENSION OF REVELATION
- 7 THEOLOGY AND HUMAN NEED
- 8 THEOLOGY AND THE COMPLETION OF UNDERSTANDING
- 9 CONCLUSION
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
9 - CONCLUSION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 INTRODUCTION TO A STUDY OF THEOLOGY
- 2 FAITH, BELIEF, THEOLOGY AND REASON
- 3 GOD AS COSMIC PROJECTION
- 4 GOD AS ACTUALIZING REGULATIVE IDEAS
- 5 THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
- 6 THEOLOGY AND THE APPREHENSION OF REVELATION
- 7 THEOLOGY AND HUMAN NEED
- 8 THEOLOGY AND THE COMPLETION OF UNDERSTANDING
- 9 CONCLUSION
- Notes
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
Although this study has attempted to probe a number of the fundamental characteristics of theological understanding, I do not pretend that it is comprehensive. Among the issues which remain to be investigated are the ways in which sacred texts, historical reports and tradition are used as sources for the discernment, formulation and development of that understanding. Such studies need to consider the aims and canons of interpretation, the justifiability of seeking insights into the nature and will of God from such sources, and the criteria for distinguishing authentic from inauthentic developments in the cumulative tradition which constitutes a religious faith. Enquiries also need to be made into the relationship between religious belief and morality. Furthermore, since religious faith is a public as well as a private matter, a comprehensive view of theological understanding should examine the social dynamics involved in the processes of thought within religious groups, and the ways in which faith expresses a society's fundamental presuppositions as well as an individual's self-understanding. Another factor in understanding which deserves attention is the role of imagination in the production and development of thought, as well as in the inspiration of creatively novel insights. Without imagination rationality may be confined to dull, mechanical routines; with it rationality may share in the creativity of the divine.
Theological understanding, however, is not a matter of inventing fictions, whether comforting, challenging, entertaining or harmonizing. It is a matter of ‘understanding’ – of apprehending the ultimate truth about reality. Accordingly, a complete survey of theology must consider the possibility, necessity, nature and appropriate forms of truth-testing in such matters.
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- The Anthropological Character of TheologyConditioning Theological Understanding, pp. 195 - 200Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990