ABSTRACT
Continuing his critique of reductionism, Root speaks in this second lecture of ‘the loss of confidence in one’s tools’, and ‘a failure of nerve’ resulting from within as well as without. By this he means not only biblical criticism, but also the neglect of natural theology, as well as metaphysics more generally. Touching briefly upon Tertullian, Kierkegaard, Barth, MacIntyre and others, Root then compares this transformation to transformations in the fields of physics and the arts. He wonders if theology can survive such discontinuity, but, in the end, argues that theology is unlike these other disciplines in so far as it is metaphysical, i.e. concerned with what is. Theological language and the question of method loom large in Root’s conclusion, foreshadowing discussions in the later lectures.
