Methods of academic theology: Pro et contra of Paul Tillich

Abstract

The article focuses on special aspects of theology methodology. The academic specificity of the subject of theology, in addition to developing its own methods, involves turning to methods of the humanities and natural sciences, which have already received scientific recognition. A specific “meeting place” of theology and humanism in the middle of the twentieth century is the academic paradigm of cultural theology, interpreting the reality of culture through theology. A unified understanding of the essence of culture provides the scientific principle of the universality of scientific knowledge in theology. The foreign experience of cultural theology includes several authorial methods of cultural theology. The paper examines Paul Tillich’s correlation method, presented by him in three volumes of “Systematic theology” (1951–1963). Two tenets of the Tillich culture theology system are analyzed: ontology and culture. The correlation method allows you to agree on the content of the theology of culture in relation to the coexistence of two facts of being: divine (non-divine) and human (created). The potential of the correlation method allows us to compare the theological and humanitarian series of concepts in a broad research paradigm without distorting Orthodox dogmatics based on the doctrine of hypostasis. Following the dogmas of the Church during the implementation of the correlation method is ensured by the observance of the antinomian theological judgments based on the dogmas of Ecumenical Councils.

Keywords:

academic theology, method of theology, theology and culture, hypostasis, consubstantiation of hypostases, dogmas of the Ecumenical Councils, dogmatic antinomy, antinomination