Systematic Theology as a Rationally Justified Public Discourse about God

Download or read book Systematic Theology as a Rationally Justified Public Discourse about God written by Michael Agerbo Mørch and published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. This book was released on 2023-01-23 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries it has been discussed whether systematic theology is a scientific discipline. But it is not obvious what is meant by either "systematic theology" or "scientific discipline". Michael Agerbo Mørch presents an understanding of systematic theology as a tripartite discipline and science as a rationally justified public discourse about a given topic. Systematic theology is shown to meet the most generally accepted criteria for scientific work, since its theories can be tested and even falsified in an intersubjective setting. This can be done by the most proper tool we have for assessing and comparing scientific theories, which is coherence theory. Therefore, even though systematic theology is a distinct and normative discipline, it is not compromising for its theories because it can present its theses in a transparent way that can be checked and criticized by peers and compared to relevant alternatives. As such, the book shows that systematic theology is a scientifically strong discourse that meets accepted criteria to the same degree as other disciplines.