Theology comes home: The role of theology in the academic study of religion and the role of theology of Judaism in the academic study of Judaism

In the academic setting, theology examines the intellectual structure and system of a corpus of religious writings and rites. The study of religion analyses the data of religion, the texts in words and artifacts. Theology articulates the systematic consequences of those facts, the generative logic. The study of theology is particular to the study of a given religious tradition; philosophy of religion asks questions concerning religious truth claims in general. Theology of Judaism seeks evidence of the interior logic that imparts coherence to entire structure of distinct systems of that religion adumbrated in the written documents of Judaism(s). In the context of a Judaic system, that requires the identification of norms that all authorities within that system affirm. Copyright 2001 Academic Press