ТЕОЛОГИЯ И РЕЛИГИОВЕДЕНИЕ: МИССИОНЕРСКИЕ ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ

Научное мнение. 2019. № 4. С. 34–38.

Mitko A.

The formation of theology as an academic discipline and branch of scientific knowledge occurs in the context of a tense discussion of its scientific character. This discussion develops in several directions, but necessarily concerns the topic of opposing religious studies and theology in a number of philosophical and methodological criteria. In the framework of such discussions, religious studies and theology are represented as two opposing poles of knowledge about religion, and religion studies are thought to have a scientific character, whereas theology is deprived of this status. At the same time, the unscientific nature of theology is supported by various (including serious) arguments, but the scientific nature of religious studies is determined through a simple opposition of “unscientific” theology. This position is also interesting because arguments against the scientific nature of theology, often based on the positivistic methodology, also call into question the scientific nature of religious studies as a research programme. The high ideological and emotional tension of discussions about the scientific status of theology sometimes conceals certain aspects of the interaction of theology and religion in a new format.

Keywords: религиоведение, методология, теология, theology, исследовательская программа, research program, missiology, миссиология, RELIGIOUS STUDIES, академическая институализация теологии, ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONALISATION OF THEOLOGY, METHODOLOGY