The Nature of Theology in Duns Scotus and his Franciscan Predecessors

The current commemorative volume is a collection of essays focused mainly around Duns Scotus’s project of philosophical theology. A present-day scientifically-minded reader might feel very much aloof among such discussions of theological matters by way of proofs, arguments and evidence: the way of discourse currently reserved for the domain of science. How do we situate such an understanding of theology and can it still be relevant and make sense to us now? In order to answer this question we need to look, first, at how theology is understood at present, second, at its status as regards what is now called the sciences, and third, at how Scotus and his immediate predecessors actually understood the nature of theology.