Chapter 6
In: Global Catholicism
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Abstract
The emerging field of Global Catholicism is not merely descriptive. It rests on a deeper account of knowing and perceiving. This requires methodological depth as well as an appropriate method. Global Catholic methodology builds from an abductive approach to knowledge, recognizing the retroduction built into catholicity and Catholic reasoning. While this neither excludes the inductive nor implies a lack of respect for the deductive, it opens a new way to do theological work empirically. Global Catholicism integrates a range of disciplines, including theology, philosophy, social science, and history. As such, Global Catholicism as a field of study is more intradisciplinary than interdisciplinary, well beyond a merely multidisciplinary approach. Its theological voice is practical, missiological, and pneumatological, grounded in an ever more adequate account of experience reflecting Biblical revelation. A similar approach may be taken to the study of World Christianity as a whole. The study of the newly global expression of this large and ancient Christian expression ultimately offers an opportunity to extend new understanding to all Christianity in a grounded practical theological approach simultaneously historical, sociological, and theological.