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 s ystem of a corpus of religious writings and rites. The study of religion an alyses the data of religion, the texts in words and artifacts. Theology art iculates the systematic consequences of those facts, the generative logic. The study of theology is particular to the study of a given religious tradi tion; philosophy of religion asks questions concerning religious truth clai ms in general. Theology of Judaism seeks evidence of the interior logic tha t imparts coherence to entire structure of distinct systems of that religio n adumbrated in the written documents of Judaism(s). In the context of a Ju daic system, that requires the identification of norms that all authorities within that system affirm. Copyright 2001 Academic Press