Practical Theology: A New Approach (Empirical Studies in Theology)

✍ Scribed by Marcel Viau

• Publisher: Brill
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 240
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Why speak about a new practical theology, when practical theology seems to be as old as theology itself? Is another "new approach" really necessary? The work aims to set practical theology on a new foundation as it explores the discipline's modes of discourse, leaving aside the question of contents. Practical theology is examined from the point of view of its workings, as it attempts to grasp and give account of faith practices. In the course of this examination, questions relative to the linguistic apparatus are raised. Is this apparatus always coherent? Does it allow for the creation of a relevant theological discourse? On what philosophical traditions does it depend? Experience, language and belief are key notions around which the whole system revolves. The perspective adopted here is largely indebted to contemporary American philosophy. Pragmatism (Peirce, James, Dewey, Rorty) and Analytic philosophy (Quine, Goodman, Putnam, Davidson) are employed in a quest for new epistemological footings. While the result is at times disconcerting, it brings with it a surprisingly rich contribution to reflection in the field.

This book offers theologians a tool which allows them to construct theological discourses which are anchored in faith practices. It fills a void in contemporary theology. Many theologians, no longer content to simply teach at a university, have chosen to work in close collaboration with Christian communities or with groups interested in the relationships between religion and society. Up to this point, theologians such as these have not had the tools at their disposal which would allow them to take account of their own practices. Opening out into many fields, Practical Theology. A New Approach will also be of interest to any researcher, philosopher or scientist, who is interested in the questions surrounding the construction of discourse based on human practices, whatever their provenance.

✦ Table of Contents

Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Introduction
Ackowledgments
PART I: EXPERIENCE
CHAPTER ONE: The Empiricists' View
1 The Ontological Charge of Words
2 The Experimental Process
3 Senses and Sensation
4 Sensualism and Idealism
CHAPTER TWO: The Rediscovery of Pragmatism
1 The Plasticity of the Universe
2 The Modest Role of Ideas and Facts
3 Organism and Environment
4 Natural Interactions
CHAPTER THREE: Signs in Language
1 Notes on Connotation
2 The Power of Induction
3 The Importance of Existential Propositions
4 Seminal Semiotics
PART II: LANGUAGE
CHAPTER FOUR: Beyond Understanding.
1 Various Forms of Knowledge
2 Knowledge and Experience
3 The Contribution of Skepticism
4 The Veracity of Ideas
CHAPTER FIVE: To Resolve Paradoxes
1 The Reality of the "Real"
2 The Reduction of Dualism
3 Denotation
4 Mentalism's Impasse
5 Theology as Grammar
CHAPTER SIX: Epitaph for Epistemology
1 Knowledge without Foundations
2 The Problem of the A Priori
3 The Indeterminacy of Translation
4 A Walk in the Ancient City
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Uses of Language
1 The Meanings of Meaning
2 Skirting Dualism
3 Leaving Reference Behind
4 The Solution of Holism
PART III: BELIEF
CHAPTER EIGHT: What is Truth?
1 Inquiry
2 Truth is Living on a Credit System
3 The True and the False
4 A Rational Acceptability
CHAPTER NINE: Vital Belief
1 The Indubitable Doubt
2 The Linguistic Dimension of Belief
3 A Disposition to Act
4 To Believe or Not to Believe
CHAPTER TEN: The Belief and the Sentence
1 The Principle of Charity
2 The Meaning of Entertainment
3 Meaning and Belief: An Inseparable Duo
4 The Components of Assent
Conclusion
Bibliography
Section I
Section I
Index