In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, the Theology 'Unit of Assessment' in which my own work was returned scored a '5' rating, a significant advance on our previous '3a' score. This apparently tells us that we submitted a high proportion of work that was not just 'excellent' but 'internationally excellent', and that the standard of our research has improved measurably and markedly since 1996. Yet, from a theological point of view, this is a strange claim. According to the discipline being assessed -as I shall try to explain -assessments of 'excellence' ought to be made in ways that are fundamentally conversational, that are themselves constitutionally open to judgment and revision, and that take time -possibly a great deal of time. Any form of assessment that tries to judge theological research in ways removed from genuine conversation, in some absolute way, and in a short and inflexible time, consequently looks rather odd.For many centuries, theologians have reflected upon the forms of accountability appropriate to their discipline. I am thinking in particular of that wing of theology which does not so much concern itself with the accurate investigation of ancient texts, nor with the detailed reporting of religious behaviour and experience around the world, but rather concerns itself with giving an account of human flourishing, of the good, the true, and the beautiful -of, in theological terms, salvation. My own particular discipline is Christian theology, and such theology believes that it cannot talk about human flourishing fully without talking about God; that it cannot talk about human flourishing fully without
George Lindbeck's book The Nature of Doctrin is often taken as a manifesto for a supposed ‘Yale school’, comprising Lindbeck himself, David Kelsey, Ronald Thiemann, Garrett Green and several others. The work of the late Hans Frei (1922–1988) is normally seen as central to this school, and his difficult writings are often explained by recourse to, and assumed to be adequately represented by, The Nature of Doctrine.
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