Looking Back, Looking Forward: Reflections on Theology & the Social Sciences

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Reflections on Theology & the Social Sciences

Doctoral students from Duke University organized a panel discussion on March 29, 2019 to consider the history and promise of qualitative approaches to research and writing in theology. Titled “Looking Back, Looking Forward: Reflections on Theology & the Social Sciences,” this panel was moderated by Luke Bretherton (Duke Divinity School) and featured reflections from David Eagle (Duke Global Health Institute), Jan Holton (Duke Divinity School), and Todd Whitmore (University of Notre Dame).

 

Panelists and participants considered prospects for convergence and exchange between theologians and social scientists. In contrast with the reluctance and occasional hostility of John Milbank, Stanley Hauerwas, and others, panelists spoke optimistically of using qualitative methods to raise theological questions and develop constructive theological proposals, particularly in relationship to the contours of everyday life.

 

Whitmore and Holton both have drawn extensively on participant observation in their theological and ethical writing, while Eagle studies clergy health using survey tools. Holton suggested the need to expand the dialogue between theology and social sciences, noting how an ethnographic approach to research requires a congruence between lived theology, academic theology, practical theology, and social scientific inquiry. Eagle encouraged theologians to consider the use of qualitative methods in addition to participant observation (such as surveys and interviews) principally for pragmatic reasons, while Whitmore registered a strong moral claim for participant observation as apprenticeship.  Discussion explored the challenges of Whitmore’s  apprenticeship model for the study of morally repugnant others and whether participant observation might be framed along broader lines, including as a search for practical wisdom or understanding.

 

The panel was organized by Dustin Benac, Emily Dubie, Mike Grigoni, Sarah Jobe, and Ryan Juskus as a component of their ongoing research and work through the Theology, Religion, and Qualitative Methods Network. Formed in 2018 with a grant from Duke Interdisciplinary Studies, this group of doctoral students gathers monthly to consider the use of qualitative methods in the  study of theology and religion. Among others, the following texts have served as a basis for ongoing conversation: