ABSTRACT
What is the best way to proceed in theological inquiry? Some theologians rely on scripture alone as their method of inquiry into God, humanity and world. 1 Others place less emphasis on scripture and rely on religious experience. 2 Some other theologians try to preserve the role of both scripture and experience, while still others add history into the mix as a third dimension. 3 The theological method advanced here is an adaptation of holistic theology. Holistic theology is an improvement over one-dimensional and two-dimensional theologies, because one-dimensional theologies display a kind of fundamentalism and two-dimensional theologies are unstable. There are many kinds of one-dimensional theology, but we shall use as a baseline the theology which relies on authoritative tradition. The basic characteristic of authoritative tradition — which has characterized most if not all of the major religious traditions — is to locate truth in a scripture or sacred text. The problem with one-dimensional theologies of this kind, is not that truth is not located in scripture, but that reflection on the text combines with new experiences to produce extra-scriptural insights. 4 Once extra-scriptural insights are admitted into theological reflection, the theology is no longer one-dimensional, but two. An example may be helpful. Modern science gives us a picture of a universe of stars and planets, a picture quite different from the layered view of heaven, earth, and underworld seemingly authorized by sacred tradition. 5 A theology needs to take into account the insights of modern science as well as the truths of sacred tradition. Hence, a one-dimensional theology based solely on authoritative tradition will not suffice for us today.
