Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Theological empiricism is the view that knowledge of God must ultimately rest on human experience. This puts it in opposition to theologies that rely exclusively on conceptual analysis and biblical revelation, or some combination of the two. Theological empiricism is not new. It has forerunners in the natural theology of the 18th century, and the appeal to feeling and intuition characteristic of some 19th-century theologians. What is new is the concept of ‘experimental theology’ and the suggestion that in seeking to secure an empirical basis for knowledge of God, theology should turn to the methods characteristic of the natural sciences. This paper argues that empiricism in theology is more plausible if it resists this suggestion. It gives special attention to the faculty of imagination in both science and art, and seeks to articulate the ways in which literature, painting, music and architecture can be said to embody empirical knowledge of a broadly theological kind.
Source: Religions
DOI: 10.3390/rel16111447
Author: Gordon Graham
Institution: Princeton Theological Seminary
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,172
OpenAlex ID: W4416192037