Inaugural Lecture
1 total work
The modern research university has proved barren soil for Christian theology. Alienated in modernity from its proper habits of thought, Christian theology has internalized prevailing methodological orthodoxy and the anthropology upon which it is built, and so found it difficult to talk of its own nature and activities in theological terms. Theology's place in the university is assured, however, not by its assimilation to standard modes of inquiry, but by critical engagement with them on theological grounds. When theology is theologically described, it offers purchase against dominant conventions of academic practice, and so contributes to a "conflict of the faculties", making the university a forum for sustained generous, and non-competitive conflict and interchange about visions of life.