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Would integration with religious studies improve analytic theology?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2023

Andrew C. Dole*
Affiliation:
Department of Religion, Amherst College, Amherst, MA, USA

Abstract

William Wood argues that analytic theology can be included as a part of the academic study of religion. He describes two types of benefits to this inclusion: benefits accruing to the study of religion on the one hand, and benefits accruing to analytic theology on the other. I find the first type of benefit that he describes to be real, but think that within the overall compass of the interests of the academic study of religion in Christian traditions it is quite small in scope, even in a context in which doctrines are a topic of particular interest. The second type of benefit, that accruing to analytic theology, is more of a puzzle. On the one hand, I find that one species of benefit that Wood describes with some clarity is unpromising, as it seems to amount to an opportunity for yet more defensive apologetics. But on the other hand, some of what Wood says is compatible with the idea that analytic theology stands to be improved in ways that are not yet clear by engagement with the academic study of religion. I conclude with a critical glance at Wood's attempt to defend analytic theology as a method of inquiry from the charge of historical shallowness.

Type
Book Symposium
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

Smith, WC (1975) Methodology and the study of religion: some misgivings. In Baird, RD (ed.), Methodological Issues in Religious Studies. Chico, CA: New Horizons Press, pp. 130.Google Scholar
Wood, W (2021) Analytic Theology and the Academic Study of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar