The present article is devoted to the issue of determining the disciplinary boundaries of Islamic theology in the context of the 'Western' views on nature and place of theological thought in the framework of intellectual subjects. The author emphasizes the historical dependency of the terms used in academic study of religion (religious studies) on the religious teaching of religion, as it has formed in Christian tradition. It is shown that the further progress of critical optics of social sciences and humanities is tied with decolonization of the scholar's thinking. The urgent need for dialogue between different intellectual traditions is substantiated, for it is necessary to create a conceptual framework that is to be adequate to heterogeneous nature of the historical forms of religion. It is being proven in the article presented that there is only one alternative to the scholar's consideration of the inner connections and the structure of discursive tradition of Islam itself: a covert 'missionary contention