3 - Theology, psychology and the social sciences
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2009
Summary
In turning to the more strictly scientific study of religion, we need to bear in mind that for the theologian the approaches of psychology, anthropology and sociology may turn out to be allies or they may turn out to be enemies.
They are enemies only if they are used to advance complete explanatory theories of religion, on the assumption that religion is a purely human phenomenon and nothing more. Convinced of the illusory nature of the alleged object of religion and theology, namely, God, the student may retreat for a time back to the neutral territory of the phenomenology of religion. But, if the arguments of the last chapter were correct, he cannot hope fully to understand and explain religion from the phenomenological standpoint alone. The question of truth remains, and if theological attempts to answer it have been rejected, then the student will have to look elsewhere. He may look to psychology or sociology for a complete explanation of the origin and nature of religion. In doing so, he is indicating his disillusion with theology and his conviction that religion is nothing but a human phenomenon. What he can not do is have his cake and eat it, that is, claim that he is looking for a complete explanation of religion in so far as it is a human phenomenon. That is a self-contradictory aim. No one can hedge his bets like that and talk of complete explanations at the same time.
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- The Problems of Theology , pp. 44 - 60Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1980