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The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary
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Abstract: The essay focuses on the Western European debates on the
role of theology and religious studies, using as reference point the trends
at Radboud University (Nijmegen), and the approaches of scholars of
this university (J. van der Ven, G. Essen). The growing interest in
religious studies has to do with institutional differentiation and globalisation.
In Western Christian society Christian theology no longer
provides the overarching theory from which universal knowledge is
described. These phenomena explain the growing interest in religious
studies. Nonetheless, the simplistic view that opposes religious studies,
as aiming at objectivity, to theology as partisan and subjective (R.
Kloppenborg), needs to be revised. Therefore the previous models of
dependence or opposition, used to describe the relationship between
theology and religious studies, should be replaced by the model of
complementarity. Both theology and religious studies should engage
themselves in Christianity and the other religions, but each one from a
different perspective. The material object of theology and religious
studies is the same for both disciplines. However the formal object of
theology is taken from an internal (“emic”) perspective, while religious
studies take a strict external (“ethic”) perspective. Although scholarly
approaches may adopt different premises, they agree in advocating that
theology and religious studies are complementary. |
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