Abstract
This text fills a lacuna in theological scholarship in outlining how social scientific research methods might be applied in theological and religious studies. The book's stated aim is to help scholars of theology and religious studies engage in research that is relevant to both faith communities and society at large, emphasising the importance of ‘lived religion’ and ‘lived theology’, and encouraging interdisciplinary research, bringing scientific rigor into theological and religious studies. The text is very practical, being presented in the form of a guide that facilitates the development of methodologies to address a specific problem.
There is a clear gap between many social scientific studies of ‘lived religion’ and theological studies. Many social scientists eschew theological discussion because they regard it as making assumptions that cannot be verified through observation. In parallel, many theologians have considered social scientific approaches as irrelevant to their research because it does not conform to their theoretical frameworks. Indeed, Iyadurai suggests that such attitudes lie at the root of the rejection by some of practical or liberation outlooks in theology. Iyadurai treads carefully in drawing a distinction between on the one hand the dominant anthropological outlook that focuses on lived practice and on the other theological methods that focus on theoretical assumptions and have traditionally been disconnected from such practical considerations. The challenge to integrate the two derives in part from a world of research that is coming to terms with diversity as western scholarship opens up to the diverse outlooks of the majority world.
Iyadurai asserts strongly that ‘the future of theological research lies with constructing grounded theologies in partnership with people’, and the methodologies outlined are particularly effective in developing insight into theological approaches in the majority world – where concepts may be expressed in ways radically different from that of western scholarship. Positivist theological outlooks struggle to accommodate both quantitative and qualitative social scientific methods, because of their perceived lack of scientific rigour. This must be challenged, however, because these reservations have led to a failure to understand theological traditions that have intellectual outlooks distinct from those derived from western approaches to scholarship. The challenge then is to both sides of this divide: theologians must employ tools to collect good data from majority world traditions and analyse it; social scientists must engage with some of the more theoretical approaches that produce well articulated theology.
Iyadurai meets well the need to bridge this divide by clearly outlining the practical, theoretical and philosophical concerns of postpositivist, constructivist, transformative and pragmatic paradigms of social research. This is followed outlining succinctly the different qualitative methodological approaches of phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, qualitative case studies and narrative enquiry and points to different ways in which each might be employed in theological research. An emphasis is placed on the social scientific approach that starts with inquiry and builds up to theory, so avoiding the outcome being determined by initial assumptions. There is helpful guidance on sampling and approaches to interview, again all focused on gaining theological insight through the process through quantitative approaches. Additionally, mixed methods of research are discussed, pointing to ways in which qualitative and quantitative approaches can work together. There is further advice on approaches to writing up results that have been obtained using these social scientific methods.
To be used effectively this text should be read with a particular topic in mind, as the book's layout is specifically aimed at helping students and their supervisors work from developing a research proposal, through to framing a methodological approach to answer the research questions. Each chapter ends with a set of review questions which may be used to develop methodologies for a specific problem. Finally, there is a chapter for supervisors and examiners on guiding and interpreting the outcomes of such research.
The book has a straightforward approach that guides students and supervisors through approaches, highlighting very clear the ways in which different methods can be applied in specific circumstances. The methods will be extremely useful for students of theology and religious studies who wish to go further than the limited approach of understanding lived experience. It clearly indicates methods for first of all inquire sensitively and without making limiting assumptions, and then then to build frameworks of understanding and models representing non-western approaches to theology, or perhaps even innovative approaches to theology even in the west.
The outlines of approaches are clear and brief so where a particular problem needs innovative approaches to research this book will fall short of meeting that need, although it will assist in clarifying the particular areas where those innovations are needed.
