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Is there any other kind of secular research that must be done in order to bear Christian witness, and, if there is, what is it, and why?

Yes, there is – -- and for the same basic reason: it, too, must be done in order to do Christian theology, which itself must be done in order to bear Christian witness. Also thus necessary to bearing Christian witness is doing philosophical – -- specifically metaphysical and ethical – -- research, and one reason it has to be done is that it is the only way to establish critically the other necessary presupposition of Christian witness: that radical monotheism is justified in conceiving the strictly ultimate reality but for which there would be nothing real at all as "God." The other reasons why such philosophical research is necessary all follow from its being the only way by which other necessary presuppositions and implications of Christian witness can be critically validated as credible and so cognitively significant assertions about reality.

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The answer, I assume, depends on the extent to which my philosophical analysis of the constitution of religions generally is a valid analysis. On this analysis, "the constitution of a religious community has a threefold structure determined by two correlations. First, there is the correlation between the religious object and the religious subject; and then, second, there is the correlation involved in the religious object itself between its transcendental aspect and its historical aspect" (Notebooks, 1 June 1990; rev. 5 January 2001; 7 October 2003). If this analysis is sound – so that the object of any religion, simply as such, has a historical as well as a transcendental aspect – -- then, clearly, something very like what I have said about doing secular research, empirical-historical as well as philosophical, being necessary to bearing Christian witness is also to be said about bearing any other religious witness. See further, "A Philosophy of Religion: Some Theses," Notebooks, Winter, 2006; rev. 16 May 2008.

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