Analytic theology
Christian theology done with the tools and standards of analytic philosophy: explicit premises, formal argument, and the expectation that a doctrine can be stated precisely enough to be tested. The name comes from a 2009 collection of essays; the practice is older.
Analytic theology is the practice of doing Christian theology the way analytic philosophy does philosophy: state the claim precisely, lay out the premises, and expect the argument to survive being written in numbered steps. The name comes from a 2009 collection of essays; the practice runs back at least to the 1970s.
Its virtue for a project like Debby is that it produces arguments in a form that can actually be tested — and it accepts the verdict when the test fails. Its risk is the one it inherits: precision about a claim's *form* can distract from whether the premises were ever plausible. The best criticisms in this material come from inside the tradition, aimed at its own leading figures.
Where this comes up
Sources
- Oliver Crisp & Michael Rea (eds.), Analytic Theology: New Essays in the Philosophy of Theology (OUP, 2009)