Embracing the Albatross: The Need for Evangelical Theological Religious Studies

The godfather of the phenomenology of religion Ninian Smart infamously declared that theology was a ‘conceptual albatross around the neck of religious studies’. Although often existing in the same university department, theology and religious studies have not had a good relationship. In recent years theologians such as Gavin D’Costa and Paul Griffiths have argued that religious studies can only, and indeed must, find its true home in theology. In this talk, we outline the need and shape of an evangelical theological religious studies to be developed under the disciple of missionary apologetics also known as ‘elenctics.’