Why Do They Write That Way?

Abstract

AbstractA deep gulf of misunderstanding separates analytic philosophers from scholars in other humanistic disciplines. The same gulf also separates analytic theologians from the rest of the religious studies academy. Explaining and addressing this gulf is one of the major tasks of this book as a whole. There is no doubt that the gulf is a joint construction, and that analytic and nonanalytic thinkers have collectively created it and allowed it to persist. Analytic philosophers sometimes lack hermeneutical charity. But at the same time, other humanists often misunderstand what analytic philosophy really is. I want to persuade nonanalytic colleagues of the value of analytic theology, and so I must allay some of these misunderstandings. Yet I also want analytic theologians and philosophers to recognize that the analytic style of writing and thinking comes with its own limitations. Like all forms of inquiry, analytic theology has “characteristic deformations,” typical excesses, and common ways of going wrong. Many of its characteristic deformations are inherited from analytic philosophy. Analytic theologians can accept this criticism without conceding the value of analytic philosophy or analytic theology.