Analytic Theology – Oliver D Crisp Michael C Rea

The Wrst of these observations is that analytic theology is likely to be interested in a particular kind of metaphysical inquiry: one which attempts ‘to give a correct account of what are the ultimate constituents of the world and how they interact’, in the words of Richard Swinburne.1 The second observation is that analytic philosophy of religion (to which Crisp anticipates analytic theology bearing a signiWcant resemblance) is frequently accused, with some rectitude, of being ‘ahistorical’ and of failing to pay attention to ‘the social and cultural factors that shape Christian doctrine’.2 The problem at the intersection of these two observations is the fact that academic theology over the past several generations has, for broadly (intellectual-)historical reasons, largely shied away from the kind of metaphysical inquiry that Crisp describes in preference to examination of the social and cultural conditioning and impact of religious doctrines.

That is to say, over the last two centuries or so of the Weld’s development, the sort of metaphysical project described by Crisp has increasingly been regarded by theologians as simply not viable, and the view among theologians that this development represents a historically informed advance rather than a decline in collective wisdom has been com- mon. Proponents of this view are likely to see those practicing analytic theology as described by Crisp as failing to realize that they are engaged in a fruitless endeavor precisely because of their ‘ahistoricity’.3 1 See p. 36 above.

2 See p. 50 above. 3 Some sort of antipathy between historical awareness and a willingness to engage in metaphysics is implied by Jean Luc Marion’s statement that ‘[i]f we understand by modernity the completed and therefore terminal Wgure of metaphysics, such as it develops from Descartes to Nietzsche, then ‘‘postmodernity’’ begins when, among other things, the metaphysical determination of God is called into question’: God Without Being, tr. Thomas A. Carlson (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), p. xxi.

The suggestion, I take it, is that those who assume that theological metaphysics is a viable undertaking have failed to keep pace with the movement of history itself. One way of responding to this charge is to engage the history of theology with respect to the question of metaphysics. In the analytic mode, this means examining the work of those historical theologians who are reputed to have been responsible for shifting the emphasis of theological inquiry away from metaphysics—and, crucially, to ask whether the positions articulated and the arguments advanced have merit.

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This page intentionally left blank Contents Notes on Contributors ix Introduction 1 Michael C. Rea I. IN DEFENSE OF ANALYTIC THEOLOGY 1. On Analytic Theology 33 Oliver D. Crisp 2.

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