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Does analytic theology belong in the public university?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2023

Kevin Schilbrack Open the ORCID record for Kevin Schilbrack [Opens in a new window]
Kevin Schilbrack*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Religion, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA
*
Email: schilbrackke@appstate.edu
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Abstract

An overarching question in William Wood's Analytic Theology and the Academic Study of Religion concerns the conditions under which theology belongs in the public university. On this question, many or most academics today are methodological naturalists, and they would not accept explanations that appeal to supernatural entities. Wood devotes a chapter to arguing against that position. Nevertheless, Wood is not a ‘sectarian’ who argues that Christian theology should only answer to its own, tradition-specific norms, and so it is important to see how close his proposal and methodological naturalism (MN) actually are. In this response, I seek to clarify both MN and Wood's proposal regarding the proper norms for academic inquiry. Key to my argument is a distinction between a MN based on strict or scientific naturalism and a MN based on liberal or expansive naturalism. Analytic theologians and expansive naturalists can agree both that a theology that operates according to proper norms for academic inquiry belongs in the public university and that strict naturalism is not the norm that we want.

Type
Book Symposium
Information
Religious Studies , First View , pp. 1 - 8
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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