What Does Theology Have to Do With Evidence? Exploring Analytic Theology and Epistemology

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to reflect upon one specific aspect of the complex relationship between theology and philosophy, namely, the relationship between theological epistemology and analytic philosophical epistemology.1 More specifically, I want to think about the following question: why should analytic theologians be interested in analytic epistemology at all? While my essay does not contain an argument in any strict sense, it nevertheless puts forward a claim, or perhaps a kind of dilemma. It is this. On the one hand, it seems reasonable to maintain that analytic theology should not commit too strongly to one single approach to knowledge and justification coming from analytic epistemology. In other words, it seems plausible that in order to do analytic theology, one does not first have to develop a comprehensive account of knowledge and justified belief. On the other hand, analytic epistemological theories may be useful in defending the rationality of the theological enterprise against secular attempts to undermine it. We should not hope analytic theologians to completely dismiss analytic epistemology. In addition, analytic epistemology can surely help theologians to better analyze basic religious concepts, like belief, faith, and experience. I am interested in finding a middle way between grounding analytic theology on a secular epistemology and completely rejecting the project of defending the rationality of the theological project against the secular critic. I will begin by outlining the reasons for my interest in this issue and the positions that I want to avoid. I will then proceed to briefly examine one dominant trend in contemporary theology that eschews any kind of evidential considerations – a trend known as nonfoundationalism or postfoundationalism. Subsequent sections deal with the motivations behind analytic religious epistemology and the project of analytic theology. Finally, the last section goes through some recent texts and ideas that might be of use in formulating a position that would avoid the pitfalls identified in the previous sections.