oa Descriptief en prescriptief in de ecologische discussie

In this article the problem is treated that arises when a systematic theologian uses descriptive material to base a prescriptive argument. By means of the example of the ecological debate it is argued that it is impossible to employ univocally factual data for a prescriptive statement no more than it is possible to select and interpret facts without prejudice. Only in a continuous complex hermeneutic process a relation between both is possible. This implies for the systematic theological researcher that he never is able to set up an unambiguous argument, but only can reach a certain level of plausibility, that depends on both his knowledge of the existing tradition and on the cogency of new evidence and his ability to integrate this into the tradition.