Duration of the project: January 2011 - October 2018.
First interruption due to maternity leave: October 2013 - September 2014.
Second interruption due to maternity leave: June 2016 - May 2017.
Abstract of the project
The phenomenon on which this research project is working is the inter-connectedness of existential faith practice and intellectual faith reflection. The project is based on the preliminary assumption that this phenomenon cannot be observed in Christianity alone but that it can be considered as a cross-religious and cross-cultural phenomenon. Therefore this project tries to explore the mentioned inter-connectedness in one particular Christian tradition (Ignatian) as well as in one particular Buddhist tradition (Vipassanā). As Christianity and Buddhism are very different ways of looking at reality and interpreting it, the expressions (and practices) which are used to name (and practice) „existential faith practice“ and „intellectual faith reflection“ differ a lot. These two poles are also just considered as two orientation marks which indicate a field in which more than these two differentiations might be meaningful.
Within the Christian approach this project works with the following differentiation:
speaking to God
speaking of God
speaking about God
Within the Buddhist approach this project works with the differentiation:
meditative insight
dharma talk
scholarly understanding
This project combines a qualitative-empirical investigation (source of insight: experiences of people from the Ignatian and the Vipassanā-tradtion who live the balance between faith practice and faith reflection) with a text-hermeneutical one (source of insight: selected scholarly writings from the Ignatian and the Vipassanā-tradition on the balance between faith practice and faith reflection). Eventually the results of both sources are taken into consideration in order to develop further the following theological research questions.
Which new aspects appear regarding the inter-connectedness of existential faith practice and intellectual faith reflection?
In what way are the results significant for the understanding of a Christian Spiritual Theology as an academic discipline and/or a way of doing theology?
In what way are the results significant for a Christian understanding of the revelation process?
Presentation of the project on the information e-point of the University of Innsbruck: Spirituelle Praxis und wissenschaftliche Theologie, on 23rd Aug. 2013.