The mode of inquiry to be exhibited throughout this essay at once resembles two venerable disciplines but resists reduction to either. In proposing that theological doctrines be assessed partly on the basis of philosophical criteria, the argument might easily be deemed an exploration in philosophical theology, were it not for the facts that (I) there is no general agreement about defining the terms of the venture, especially among its practitioners; and (2) what follows is not like any philosophical theology currently recognized as such. The problem of characterizing philosophical theology is compounded still further by a conspicuous lack of consensus as to what constitutes philosophy and theology; the indefiniteness of these enterprises is now epidemic in magnitude. As there are different ways to philosophize, there are several kinds of theology sanctioned in the name of faith. To engage in either activity, one must make important decisions about the manner of his thinking which, if not determining altogether the outcome of his endeavor, at least will limit seriously the range of what he may expect to accomplish. As in the case of speculative as opposed to critical philosophy, or of dogmatic as opposed to systematic theology, the alternatives often are mutually exclusive. To choose between them is at once to assume responsibility for claims about what is essential to the respective field, unless it is supposed that one would persist in a project not felt to be crucial to the whole discipline. But how is the initial choice to be defended, given its priority over anything which could function as a norm for judgment? The kind of inquiry stipulated as foundational cannot be so demonstrated merely by invoking the suppositions of the inquiry itself. To be sure, one mode of inquiry may be. elicited dialectically from a prior mode; one might become an analytic philosopher from encountering peculiar formal difficulties with logical positivism, for example. Eventually, however, it will be necessary to account for