Distributed normativity in theology

Empirical research has traditionally been absent in and is still a foreigner to systematic theology. Yet, the turn towards practices in studies of religion and theology implies that empirical research methodologies cannot be deemed irrelevant to systematic theology. This paper explores Hanna Reichel’s theory of theology as design, focusing on how she understands theology as practice and possible implications for the relevance of empirical methods to systematic theology. Bringing Reichel’s concept of theology as practice into dialogue with Geir Afdal’s concept of distributed normativity, the paper makes the case that the question of the affordances of a doctrine is not only an imperative theological question but also an empirical question opting for empirical research methods.