Intus legere

the phenomenological qualitative method in theological research

Abstract

The article has a descriptive character and intends to contribute to
research in the theological area, expanding the possibilities of qualitative methods. The word method comes from the Greek methodos, which means to follow
the path to an end. The term indicates a scientific investigation, delineated, and
systematized with the objective of producing new knowledges, discussing and/
or integrating with existing ones. It can be seen that in research at the stricto
sensu level, instruments of data collection through empirical studies are frequent in the field of Human Sciences, but not always common in the theological
field. Among the existing powerful qualitative methods, the article addresses
phenomenological investigation in its epistemology and exemplifies the work
of the author in her doctoral thesis. It describes the phenomenological method
through intus legere experience, which indicates reading from within human
experiences. It explains the development of narrative interviews and details the
exploration and systematization of the findings by means of discursive textual
analysis as coherent with the phenomenological attitude. The article presents as
a digital tool resource, the ATLAS.ti software. It is an optimizing support for qualitative research. It concludes by emphasizing that the complexity of theological
contemporaneity is abundant in possibilities of original scientific elaborations
by expanding in empirical research the theoretical foundations, especially with
digital technological facilitators. It concludes by encouraging new researchers
in the theological field to develop the novelty of their authorships in the course
of qualitative phenomenological research.

Keywords: Research, Theology, Qualitative method, Phenomenology.