The Importance (or Lack Thereof) of Interdisciplinarity in Theological Endeavor

Theology is a discipline within the humanities that seeks, through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, a deeper understanding of God, the supernatural, and the divine. It has a methodology of its own and constitutes a distinct form of knowledge — one whose standing as a science was called into question from the Renaissance onward, and above all by the “positivism” of Auguste Comte.

Its importance, however, is in no way diminished relative to the other sciences; quite the opposite. Theology plays an active role in society and in the life of the church alike, seeking to bring solutions and improvements to all who belong to them.

By opening a dialogue with other fields of knowledge, theology also broadens its practical reach into such areas of social life as politics and economics.

However much it may be ridiculed in a postmodern age, theology will always retain the title of queen of the sciences, for it studies — however partially — the knowledge of the infinite: the sovereign and inscrutable God. Every other science rests entirely on the experience of natural humanity, which is finite.