Theological Method

• First Entry: Towards an Evangelical Theological Method (outline), parts I-III
  

  I. What is Theology?
  

  1. Defn: a finite set of propositions which purport to be a denotative paraphrase of God's descriptive predications of Himself, His creation, and their relations.
     

  2. Basis: the semantic character of the universe
     
     • God 'spoke' the universe into existence -- nature is fundamentally semantic (linguistic) and spiritual (active)
       

     • This equates correspondence with paraphrase.
       

     • Creates basis for analogical predication re God
       

     • Precision is a very relative term...there are too many primitives and experiential gestalten that we cannot 'get behind to some other reality'
       

  3. Character: propositional explication of revelation about God, his creation, and the interrelationships.
     

  II. From Whence cometh Theology?
  
  1. Historically
     
     • Revelation within a context
       
       1. The context of previous revelation
       2. The context of previous theology
       3. The context of other systems of thought
       4. The context of a culture
       5. The context of God's 'person'
       6. The context of our personal commitments, orientations, theological competencies
       7. The context of questions of worldview and/or behavior
          

     • The study of the source documents (e.g. monastics, university)
       

     
     

  2. Structurally
     
     • Systematic: two conflicting propositions from ANY foci (e.g. scripture, biblical theology, exegesis, systematics, ideologies, applications, history (sometimes))
       

       Paradigm case: the two natures of Christ
       

       In Matt 22, Jesus confronts the Pharisees with the enigma of Psalm 110--if the messiah is David's son (and therefore his inferior), how can David call him "lord" (a superior)? The answer, of course, is in the dual nature of Christ, but this theological understanding had probably not been made explicit yet. Jesus used a 'contradiction' in the foci of scripture to build the intersection of those two ideas...
       

       Another example from rabbinical praxis: the rabbis saw a contradiction between the coming in clouds (of the Son of Man in Daniel) and the coming 'on a donkey' (in Zech)...they had to develop a theological 'system' to remove the tension. They suggested that the messiah would NOT come in both ways, but that the spiritual condition of Israel, at His coming, would determine WHICH way he appeared. They resolved the tension by creating a selective/conditional substrate for the events.
       

     • Directive: a specific need at a specific time; like 'occasional' scripture
       

     • Non-directive: textual study, research
       

     • (Note: theory construction will occur in all of the above.)
       

  
  

  III. What Does it Mean to "Do Theology"?
  

  1. Construction of a linguistic proposal to solve a problem (even an unformed one in simple textual study) in a manner consistent with other explicit items of revelation and theology. Includes the notion of 'degrees of' explicitness and corrigibility of previous theological and methodological commitments.
     

  2. Derivative from this is community argument and critique
     

  3. This activity occurs in the context of active relationships with God, others, the universe--its theoretical content is embedded in an implicative system of values and derivative epistemic substrates.
     

  4. Both contexts occur: the context of discovery and the context of justification
     

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• Second Entry: Towards an Evangelical Theological Method (outline), parts IV-V (under construction)
  

  IV. Method in the Prior Theological Tasks (Discovery)
  

  1. Overview/Interaction of phases (construction, testing, revision)
     

  2. Construction phase
     

  3. Testing process
     

  4. Revision/rejection
     

  V. Method in the Posterior Theological Tasks (Justification)
  
  1. Overview/Interaction of phases (argument, critique)
     

  2. Justification arguments
     

  3. Critique of Justification arguments