Analytic Theology as a Spiritual Practice

AbstractPart III calls for a more theological analytic theology and defends analytic theology from some common theological objections. Many theologians reject analytic theology because they find it too abstract and spiritually sterile to count as genuine theology. In contrast, I argue that analytic theology may be understood as a spiritual practice. Intellectual practices are also spiritual exercises when they (1) aim at self-improvement or liberation, instead of simply the acquisition of knowledge; (2) discipline the passions, since unchecked passions and immoderate desires are the enemy of both the spiritual life and the life of the mind; (3) help us see the world as it really is, rather than as we imagine or wish it to be; and (4) help us cultivate specific virtues that are at once intellectual and moral, like attention or concentration. It is in these senses that analytic theology can be understood as a spiritual practice. Analytic theology is an authentic development of a tradition of Christian philosophical theology, which includes Anselm and Aquinas as members, and which treats theology as both theoretical and practical at once.