FOCUS on MULTIPLE research fields?

[tonychanyt]

Joshua Cockayne:

My research focuses primarily on issues related to mission, spirituality, liturgy, and the nature of the Church.

Bold emphasis added.

When I read the above, I experienced anterior cingulate cortex dissonance. In my scientific mind, it is a poor choice of words. Does he have deep expertise in all the above disciplines? If not, why then does he list them?

If he had just said:

I research issues related to mission, spirituality, liturgy, and the nature of the Church

my ACC would not have fired up.

Oxford, focus:

to give attention, effort, etc. to one particular subject, situation or person rather than another.

I don't know about researchers on Christian subjects. My specialty is AI, and I have a PhD. For thirty years, my research focused only on the metric approach to AI. I have never published anything else.

Does Dr. Cockayne have secondary focuses as well?

I didn't, at least not in my research. The phrase 'secondary focuses' is an oxymoron. It took me years to learn the AI lingo. Few scientists can do research on multiple disciplines unless they are polymaths like von Neumann. In any case, one can only focus on one thing at a time.

How easy or difficult is it to become a Christian polymath? What is the depth of his expertise in all those disciplines?

There is a general lack of operational precision of language in Biblical scholarship.

 

[linux.poet]

Most theologians do not have English degrees.

Further, I'm not sure I can define theology as a scientific discipline. It seems to be an interdisciplinary subject the way that web design properly is. It appears to have scientific elements (archeology) , but also history, literature, and languages as component parts. Frankly, every other field of knowledge is born from theology, and every other field of knowledge links back to it.

Therefore, I have to admit that expecting theology to follow scientific language rules is too much to expect. Does he mean "research" as in scientific research or research as in literary or historical research? The latter is intuitive and prone to tangents. In literary research, one can start with one question and come out with an even more compelling correlation as an answer.

The statement seems to be inherently broad to allow him to research what the Holy Spirit wants him to research without hinderance. That statement covers almost all of Christian thought areas.

 

[tonychanyt]

expecting theology to follow scientific language rules is too much to expect.

Good point. Thanks

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Joshua Cockayne:


Bold emphasis added.

When I read the above, I experienced anterior cingulate cortex dissonance. In my scientific mind, it is a poor choice of words. Does he have deep expertise in all the above disciplines? If not, why then does he list them?

If he had said:


my ACC would not have fired up.

Oxford, focus:


I don't know about researchers on Christian subjects. My specialty is AI, and I have a PhD. For thirty years, my research focused only on the metric approach to AI. I have never published anything else.

Does Dr. Cockayne have secondary focuses as well?

I didn't, at least not in my research. The phrase 'secondary focuses' is an oxymoron. It took me years to learn the AI lingo. Few scientists can do research on multiple disciplines unless they are polymaths like von Neumann. In any case, one can only focus on one thing at a time.

How easy or difficult is it to become a Christian polymath? What is the depth of his expertise in all those disciplines?

There is a general lack of operational precision of language in Biblical scholarship.

Not knowing anything specific about Joshua Cockayne, I read his statement you quoted to mean essentially that out of various fields of study, he concentrates on the four he's cited (however vague his small list is). Yes, it may have been better for him to just indicate he has an interdisciplinary approach.

I'm sure a person such as yourself could also look at the various academic interests I've listed on my CF personal page and express similar criticisms about my own diverse, interdisciplinary approach to engaging Philosophical inquiry within a Christian context ..................... I'm sure that despite my endeavor to cover many academic bases, I come up short.

 

[tonychanyt]

the various academic interests I've listed on my CF personal page

Did you use the word 'focus'? My complaint is the way Cockayne used the word 'focus'

 

[2PhiloVoid]

Did you use the word 'focus'? My complaint is the way Cockayne used the word 'focus'

No, I just said that I have "multiple interests" of study. If you're a PhD, and he's a PhD (or ThD, or whatever), then I guess I can partly understand how you'd be more specific about the way in which you expect the use of "focus" to serve as a descriptor for certain studies. It might just be, too, that in line with what @linux.poet said above, he's more "socially" oriented in his focus as an 'analytic theologian.'

On a side note, I briefly looked up the link you provided and then also ran across his published papers and this 90 second YT video where he talks about relational, existential theology in a Kierkegaardian mode of thinking, which would explain some of his "focus," and he does so with what sounds like a European accent.......

Cockayne's published papers:

Joshua Cockayne - University of St Andrews

I am an honorary lecturer at the Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology at the University of St. Andrews. My research focuses on analytic…

st-andrews.academia.edu

 

[tonychanyt]

No, I just said that I have "multiple interests" of study.

Then you are okay according to my anterior cingulate cortex

​

 

[okay]

From your post it isn’t clear whether the individual does more interdisciplinary work requiring they ‘focus’ on multiples of those fields at the same time, or if they simultaneously have more than one ‘focus’ across a research portfolio where each project is only in one of the areas, or if their ‘focused’ research interest has drifted around over time. All three cases are fairly common. I would give them the benefit of the doubt.

My research projects these days are in two distinct areas, neither of which are in the same specialty as my PhD.