What is Theology's Standpoint?

Abstract

“A standpoint is the set of experiences, images, presuppositions, expectations, and operations (of inquiring and deciding) by which men make themselves conscious of their own identity and their relation to their world. … An adequate theology today must be able to enter into many historical standpoints, and perhaps to invent other possible standpoints as well. The theologian at his best must operate from a ‘higher standpoint,’ or, better, an ‘open standpoint,’ to empathize with, to explore, and to enter into more than one historical standpoint. … The task of learning how to operate from an open standpoint involves the relativities of one's own standpoint as well as the relativities of other standpoints. To see fundamental concrete symbols as others see them, and to learn how to discern what is illuminating and what is merely adventitious in such symbols, is a tricky business. Theologians are notoriously tricky people. Living with relativity requires trickiness.”