This course is a study of contemporary academic disciplines and their relationship to theological reflection. The course argues for the need of multidisciplinary foundations for theologizing today and presents various contemporary examples through a consideration of the works of selected contemporary theologians.
Contemporary theological studies have been characterized by dialogue with other disciplines like philosophy, social science, and cultural studies. This dialogue has enriched both theology and other disciplines. This course introduces the theological student to the important issues in this dialogue. For example, How can the truth of Christian doctrine be expressed in formulations shaped by language and culture? or Is the modern concept of democracy incompatible with the Churchs self-understanding? By considering such questions, the student comes to a deeper understanding of the theological task within the life of the Church. The Philosophical Plausibility of Christianity
This course aims to demonstrate the necessity and value of “doing philosophy” in the study of theology by: (a) problematizing the assumptions underlying Christian Catholic doctrines and practices, and (b) demonstrating a fundamental warrant for both religious belief and religious reasoning.
These goals will be accomplished not only through recourse to traditional scholastic philosophy, but also through an unlikely alliance with a major contemporary and secular philosophy of the natural and social sciences: Roy Bhaskar’s critical realism.
By the end of the course, students are expected to have the language and knowledge to discuss the intellectual plausibility of the basic truth claims of Christianity, as well as to refute major contemporary counter-Christian schools of thought, such as modernist and postmodernist anthropocentrism, positivism, determinism, reductionism, and relativism.
