3 - An experiential method
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2009
Summary
In 1922, on the occasion of his inauguration as principal of Westminster College, Cambridge, Oman delivered a lecture which he entitled “Method in Theology.” This lecture is a summary statement of what after many years he had found to be “the best method of trying” to do theology, and it represents his most direct statement on the subject. It is, indeed, “in parts difficult and even obscure,” and what it says will need some fleshing out from other methodological passages, but the main ideas of Oman's theological method are there, and a study of the lecture amply repays the effort needed to understand it. What emerges is a theological method that takes human experience as the principal theological source, and, in understanding what this involves and exactly what “experience” means, is an important step toward understanding Oman's doctrine of God. We shall begin with a summary of the inaugural lecture and then move on to a wider discussion of the method in his other writings.
“METHOD IN THEOLOGY”
The first part of the inaugural lecture is basically a negative statement: the method of theology is not concerned with the repetition or maintenance of traditional ecclesiastical authority or of doctrinal statements. At a time when the truth of religion was being questioned from all sides by science, history, psychology, and philosophy, Oman argues that theology must show that its own investigations are investigations into something real, and that its method of investigation, while different from that of these other fields, is nevertheless one that is complementary and not in contradiction to their methods.
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- John Oman and his Doctrine of God , pp. 41 - 62Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992