Colloquium Response
2017 ◽
Vol 29
(1)
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pp. 89-94
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Keyword(s):
The problem for Study of Religions (sor) in the academy is the dearth of successful theory-as-explanation in the field and the consequential domination of the public square by other voices namely theology, apologetics, humanist study that privileges belief and New Atheism. There is theory-as-critique aplenty and it is applied to both religious truth claims and to explanatory theories about religion. Scholars ofsorhave the critical tools, methods, expertise and weight of scholarship to error check and to disprove naturalistic explanations but finding explanatory ground to stand on is very hard indeed. This piece argues that it is important to renew and revitalise the search for explanation.