Verkenning van 'n postmoderne epistemologiese konteks vir die praktiese teologie

Abstract

What is known as the standard scientific method (logical positivism andempiricism), has led to several epistemological dilemmas for scientists (for natural scientists as well as for social scientists). As the dilemmas are being investigated, however, it becomes clear that a different thought current has invaded the world today, which I would like to call "postmodernism" by lack of a better descriptive term. It is true to say postmodernism is a reaction to the standard scientific method, but at the same time it proposes new epistemological outcomes to problems (critical realism, holism, pluralism, ermeneutics, discourse analysis, and the narrative paradigms). Practical theology can also benefit from these metatheories and alternative to the limiting effect of subject centered thinking, as is the case with the standard scientific method. It brings hopeful possibilities and can beknown as the epistemology of communal dialogue.