A Fundamental Theology for Doctrine: Science and History

Abstract

The categories that fundamental theology treats as key for the meaning of doctrine are largely historical. A fundamental theology that begins from the standpoint of the scientific enterprise of understanding nature is therefore orthogonal to the gospel and its doctrinal explication, although not contrary to it. In response to the work of G. Tanzella-Nitti, this paper evaluates theologians (McGrath, Lonergan, Rahner, Ratzinger), whose work has operated by deploying categories that treat both nature and history. Fundamental theology may be both a natural theology and a theology of historical meaning, but two things are required. First, it needs a better distinction between general and special categories without separating philosophy from theology. Second, recognizing a post-positivist turn in the philosophy of science, Christian wisdom uncovers the anthropological nexus between scientific and historical aspects of natural theology, as most clearly indicated in Ratzinger’s theology.