Mode of thinking in theology and its peculiarities: epistemological analysis

Alexan­der M. Dorozhkin 
Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty of Nizh­ni Nov­gorod
Andrei N. Tkachev 
Lobachevsky State Uni­ver­si­ty of Nizh­ni Nov­gorod 

Mode of think­ing in the­ol­o­gy and its pecu­liar­i­ties: epis­te­mo­log­i­cal analy­sis

Abstract. The arti­cle address­es the issue of the con­tent of the notion of the­ol­o­gy and its schol­ar­ly sta­tus. We spec­i­fy dif­fer­ent under­stand­ings of the essence of the­ol­o­gy and var­ied epis­te­mo­log­i­cal frame­works that under­lie the the­o­log­i­cal frame­works. The arti­cle also exam­ines the inter­con­nec­tions between some mean­ings of “the­ol­o­gy,” as well as the inter­re­la­tions between sci­ence and phi­los­o­phy. The authors com­pare the­o­log­i­cal and philo­soph­i­cal per­spec­tives of the issue con­sid­ered and dis­cuss the accept­abil­i­ty of dif­fer­ent vari­ants of ratio­nal­i­ty and those pat­terns of the­o­log­i­cal thought that claim for ratio­nal­i­ty in their atti­tude. The arti­cle also con­sid­ers an epis­te­mo­log­i­cal rela­tion­ship between the types of the­ol­o­gy that do not con­strain the ratio­nal­i­ty of their approach and the types of the­ol­o­gy that ful­ly or par­tial­ly deny the right of human rea­son to be a the­o­log­i­cal cri­te­ri­on. The authors point out that a type of the­ol­o­gy close to phi­los­o­phy and sci­ence in an epis­te­mo­log­i­cal sense is much less com­mon, and demon­strate how this type of the­ol­o­gy may be of inter­est to oth­er types of the­ol­o­gy, bas­ing on a pre-exist­ing mod­el for rela­tions between bib­li­cal the­ol­o­gy and dog­mat­ic the­ol­o­gy. The authors sug­gest this mod­el con­struct­ed with­in inter­dis­ci­pli­nary the­o­log­i­cal inter­re­la­tions for the rela­tion­ship between dif­fer­ent under­stand­ings of the­ol­o­gy.

Key­words: the­ol­o­gy, ratio­nal­i­ty, sci­ence, phi­los­o­phy, under­stand­ing, epis­te­mol­o­gy, Human­i­ties, inter­pre­ta­tion.

DOI:10.5840/dspl20181439

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