ZYGO Zygon® 0591-2385 1467-9744 10.1111/1467-9744.00517 Constructing and Testing Theological Models Klemm David E. Klink William H. 02 09 2003 38 3 10.1111/zygo.2003.38.issue-3 495 528

In order for theology to have a cognitive dimension, it is necessary to have procedures for testing and critically evaluating theological models. We make use of certain features of scientific models to show how science has been able to move beyond the poles of foundationalism, represented by logical positivism, and antifoundationalism or relativism, represented by the sociologists of knowledge. These ideas are generalized to show that constructing and testing theological models similarly offers a means by which theology can move beyond confessionalism and postmodernism. Our starting point is Paul Tillich's concept of God as the ground of being and the different levels of consciousness and thinking that accompany his understanding of theology. The ontological argument of Anselm is shown to play a key role, not as a proof for the existence of God but as a means for testing theological models. An example of a theological model, drawn from the domain of philosophy of science, is presented to show how theological models are constructed and tested.

 depth model nesting of paradigms structure theological model Anselm of Canterbury. [107778] 1970. “An Address (Proslogion).”  In A Scholastic Miscellany: Anselm to Ockham, ed. and trans. Eugene R.Fairweather, 69–93. New York: Macmillan. Black, Max. 1962. Models and Metaphors. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press. Bloor, David. 1976. Knowledge and Social Imagery. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Caputo, John D.1999. God, the Gift, and Postmodernism. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press. Carlson, Thomas A.1999. Indiscretion: Finitude and the Naming of God. Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press. Duhem, Pierre Maurice Marie. 1954. The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ——. 1969. To Save the Phenomena: An Essay on the Idea of Physical Theory from Plato to Galileo. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Feyerabend, Paul K.1975. Against Method: Outlines of an Anarchistic Theory of Knowledge. Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press. Gadamer, Hans‐Georg. [1960] 1975. Truth and Method. Trans. GarrettBarden and JohnCumming. New York: Seabury. Hauerwas, Stanley. 1975. Character and the Christian Life. San Antonio, Tex.: Trinity Univ. Press. ——. 1981. A Community of Character. Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press. ——. 2001. The Hauerwas Reader. Durham, N.C.: Duke Univ. Press. Heidegger, Martin. [1927] 1962. Being and Time. Trans. JohnMacquarrie and EdwardRobinson. New York: Harper and Row. Hesse, Mary B.1966. Models and Analogies in Science. Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press. Kuhn, Thomas S. [1962] 1970. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Lakatos, Imre. 1968. “Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes.”  In Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge, ed. I.Lakatos and A. E.Musgrave, 91–196. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. Latour, Bruno. 1979. Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications. Milbank, John. 1993. Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason. Oxford: Blackwell. Oldroyd, David. 1989. The Arch of Knowledge: An Introductory Study of the History of the Philosophy and Methodology of Science. Kensington, Australia: New South Wales Univ. Press. Peacocke, Arthur R.1993. Theology for a Scientific Age: Being and Becoming—Natural, Divine, and Human. London: SCM Press. Plantinga, Alvin. 1990. Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy. Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press. Polkinghorne, John C.1994. The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom‐up Thinker. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press. ——. 1996. Beyond Science: The Wider Human Context. Cambridge, England, and New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. ——. 1998. Belief in God in an Age of Science. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press. Ricoeur, Paul. 1977. The Rule of Metaphor: Multi‐Disciplinary Studies of the Creation of Meaning in Language. Trans. RobertCzerny with KathleenMcLaughlin and JohnCostello, S.J.Toronto and Buffalo: Univ. of Toronto Press. Scharlemann, Robert P.1981. The Being of God: Theology and the Experience of Truth. New York: Seabury. ——. 1989. “Constructing Theological Models.”  In Inscriptions and Reflections: Essays in Philosophical Theology, 125–40. Charlottesville, Va.: Univ. Press of Virginia. Suppe, Frederick, ed. 1977. The Structure of Scientific Theories. Urbana, Ill., Chicago, and London: Univ. of Illinois Press. Swinburne, Richard. 1977. The Coherence of Theism. Oxford: Clarendon. ——. 1994. The Christian God. Oxford: Clarendon; New York: Oxford Univ. Press. Taylor, Mark C.1984. Erring: A Postmodern A/theology. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Tillich, Paul. 1951. Systematic Theology, Vol. I. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. ——. 1952. The Courage to Be. New Haven: Yale Univ. Press. ——. 1955. Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. ——. 1957. Dynamics of Faith. New York: Harper and Row. Weinberg, Steven. 1992. Dreams of a Final Theory. New York: Pantheon. Winquist, Charles E.1986. Epiphanies of Darkness: Deconstruction in Theology. Philadelphia: Fortress. ——. 1995. Desiring Theology. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press. Yoder, John Howard. 1984. The Priestly Kingdom: Social Ethics as Gospel. Notre Dame, Ind.: Univ. of Notre Dame Press.