Methodological Dimensions of Josiah Royce's thought from the Perspective of Contemporary Theological Approaches

In this article, the religious attitude of Josiah Royce (1855-1916) is examined and analyzed based on some major contemporary theological currents such as the philosophy of analytic religion, analytic theology, systematic theology and postmodern theology. It seems that the Pragmatism, derived from Kant's philosophy, is the common historical source between Royce's thought and that of contemporary philosophers of religion. He uses Christian beliefs as a prelude to his arguments, and for this reason his approach is comparable to analytical theologians. According to a system of theological beliefs inspired by personal idealism, his thought is considered as a kind of systematic theology. On the other hand Royce maintained that the subject or Self is constructed by social and cultural factors and this approach is in the direction of postmodern philosophers, and also offers a new interpretation of Christian theology in response to the needs of the time. Despite all these Similarities, Royce’s thought in due to metaphysical intuition - as a reliable source of knowledge and reality - differs from the analytical tradition and postmodernism.