This thesis concerns ways of knowing in the Anglican eucharistic tradition. It also explores the ramifications of these ways of knowing for theological education in the Anglican tradition of Christianity. The thesis uses Anglican eucharistic theology as a source of case study, and attempts, using a methodology of phenomenology to examine critically the particular interests and philosophical assumptions underlying eucharistic theology in the Anglican tradition from the time of the Reformation to the present day. Phenomenology is chosen as the methodology since it allows access to the diverse experience of the Anglican eucharistic tradition, suspending judgment until a later time when essences are extracted from the case studies. This has the potential to avoid exclusive commitments to particular technical and hermeneutic interests within Anglicanism while at the same time recognising the multiformity of the Anglican eucharistic tradition and fostering a critical approach to the examination of the experience of the Anglican eucharistic tradition and Anglican theological education. In examining ways of knowing in the Anglican tradition, the thesis acknowledges the usefulness for eucharistic theology and theological education of philosophical enquiry. The three ways of knowing (technical, hermeneutic and critical) proposed by the philosopher, Jurgen Habermas (1971 and 1973) are used to assist in understanding the knowledge of the Anglican eucharistic tradition presented in the case studies. The further insights of Habermas (1984 and 1989) are used in recommending a dialogue approach, based on the intersubjectivity of communicative action, for theological education concerned with the teaching of eucharistic theology in the Anglican tradition. Philosophical reflection is also employed in an examination of the underlying philosophical assumptions of the case studies of eucharistic theology in the Anglican tradition. A model of the Anglican eucharistic tradition based on the philosophical concepts of realism and nominalism, to both the moderate and immoderate degrees is developed and proposed as a way of promoting a critical interest in the Anglican eucharistic tradition beyond the merely technical or hermeneutic interests commonly found in various church parties of the Anglican Communion. The work of the Australian philosopher David Armstrong (1989, 1995, 1997 and 2004) is foundational to the development of a model for the Anglican eucharistic tradition and the examination of its experience in the case studies. The principal findings of the study suggest that the prevailing essence of the Anglican eucharistic tradition is a multiformity of eucharistic doctrine, such that eucharistic theology is most often expressed using the philosophical assumptions of realism and nominalism to the moderate degree and according to varying technical and hermeneutic interests. The thesis also seeks to draw out the educational implications of these differing ways of knowing for theological education in the Anglican tradition and specifically for the teaching of eucharistic theology. The principal recommendation of the thesis for theological education is the application of a dialogue approach in the teaching of eucharistic theology in Anglican theological education, where dialogue involves the development of an ideal communicative community in which participants seek shared meaning on the basis of the intersubjectivity of communicative action. / PhD Doctorate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/201455 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Douglas, Brian Ernest |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.newcastle.edu.au/copyright.html, Copyright 2006 Brian Ernest Douglas |
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