Methodology in Theology

What is it about?

Theologians are not always explicit about their methodologies. Phenomenology is a philosophical approach focusing on what is given to experience; a hermeneutic approach to phenomenology recognises that what is given in experience is always interpreted. Recent French philosophers argue that we can use a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology in theology. Their opponents argue that phenomenology can't be used in theology, because phenomenology cannot presume belief in God. In this article, I argue that phenomenology cannot presume either the existence OR the non-existence of God, so that it has to remain open to the possibility that God can affect experience.

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Why is it important?

This article is important for three reasons: i) Practical theologians who claim to be using phenomenology as a methodology are sometimes using it in the way it has been developed in the social sciences, which is atheistic. This means that their research is subject to a fundamental problem - their methodology is atheistic but their field of research is theistic. ii) Other theologians are sometimes not explicit about their methodology. A hermeneutic phenomenology is a helpful methodology to adopt, because it keeps theologians aware both of the possibilities and of the limits of what they are trying to claim. It engages issues of history and context, as well as being able to be utilised in a variety of analyses - biblical, philosophical, those relating to tradition, and so on. iii) Many theologians struggle with criticisms of modern theology that are made in the light of a philosophy that challenges their use of a metaphysical approach. Hermeneutic phenomenology as it has been developed in recent French thought prompts a thoughtful negotiation with metaphysics as well as postmodern critique.