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Document Details : Title: Mutual Interruption Subtitle: Toward a Productive Tension between Theology and Religious Studies Author(s): BOEVE, Lieven Journal: Louvain Studies Volume: 34 Issue: 1 Date: 2009 Pages: 3-18 DOI: 10.2143/LS.34.1.2046978 Abstract : In the recent past, the relationship between theology and religious studies has repeatedly been a subject of discussion. In this essay I will approach my reflection on the relation between theology and religious studies from a cultural theological perspective. This means that I will start off with a reflection about the way Christian faith relates to the present-day context and how this opens up possibilities for an authentic theological project. I will argue that, because of the changed relationship between faith and context, it is not only theology’s turn to religious studies, but also the increasing isolation and ‘pastoralisation’ of theology, which present two comprehensible but nevertheless erroneous reactions to this situation. The first appears to be a survival strategy as a response to theology’s loss of cultural and scientific plausibility, the second a protection strategy against the increased tension between faith/theology on the one hand and context/sciences on the other. On the basis of an analysis of the context in terms of plurality and diversity, I will offer a plea for a theological project that keeps theology and religious studies together in a productive tension – mutually interrupting each other – and thus maintaining a tension between continuity and discontinuity. |
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