Defining Theology ( summarised from various sources and edited)

What is Theology?

A.H. Strong described it as "The science of God and of the relations between God and the universe." Charles Hodge wrote that it is "The science of the facts of divine revelation so far as those facts concern the nature of God and our relation to Him, as His creatures, as sinners, and as the subjects of redemption."

2 Timothy 3:15 records:

The Nature of Theology

One could say that our concept of theology began with the Greeks, even though it gained its content and method with Christianity. The themes of the discipline are God, humanity, salvation, and the study of last things, among other topics. According to Helmut Thielicke:

The Greek philosopher Plato (c. 428-348/347 BC), with whom the concept emerges for the first time, associated with the term theology a polemical intention - as did his pupil Aristotle. For Plato theology described the mythical, which he allowed may have a temporary pedagogical significance that is beneficial to the state but is to be cleansed from all offensive and abstruse elements with the help of political legislation. This identification of theology and mythology also remained customary in the later Greek thought. In distinction to philosophers, "theologians" (as, for example, the poets of myth - e.g., the 8th-century-BC Greeks Hesiod and Homer - or the cultic servants of the oracle at Delphi [Greece] and the rhetors of the Roman cult of emperor worship) testified to and proclaimed that which they viewed as divine. Theology thus became significant as the means of proclaiming the gods, of confessing to them, and of teaching and "preaching" this confession. In this practice of "theology" by the Greeks lies the prefiguration of what later would be known as theology in the history of Christianity. In spite of all the contradictions and nuances that were to emerge in the understanding of this concept in various Christian confessions and schools of thought, a formal criterion remains constant: theology is the attempt of adherents of a faith to represent their statements of belief consistently, to explicate them out of the basis (or fundamentals) of their faith, and to assign to such statements their specific place within the context of all other worldly relations (e.g., nature and history) and spiritual processes (e.g., reason and logic).

The Objective of Theology

There may be as many objectives to theology as there are theologians. Some have as their goal, perhaps, simply the accumulation of facts about God, without any concrete goal beyond that. Others may study God for the purpose of making a point. Too often, theology falls to the lowest ebb, of people seeking to prove something, rather than people seeking to discover or understand something. Theology should function as a science, and like any other science, it should have as its sole goal the attainment of truth.


Importance of Theology

It is a truism that everyone has a theology, even those millions who deny there is any need for it. Everyone who reads the Bible or even thinks about God has contrived a theology of some sort. So there is a question that everyone must face: "Is my theology a good one?" By good, it is meant, accurate, biblical, coherent, and consistent? This is not a subjective question; there are objective criteria to think about.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman that those who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23).
The prophet Hosea wrote:

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. (Hosea 4:6)


Classification of Theology

1. Natural Theology

Natural theology is restricted to the facts concerning God which are revealed in the universe around us. Thomas Aquinas, in a systematic fashion, outlined his belief that the existence of God may be proven from reason alone. Modern theologians such as Karl Barth, reflecting Immanuel Kant and David Hume, argued that there was essentially no validity to a natural theology, while Process theologians such as John B. Cobb, Jr., Schubert Ogden and David Griffen have argued the exact opposit.

2. Biblical Theology

Biblical theology is restricted to the biblical revelation of God. Its sole source is the Bible, independent of any philosophical system (ideally). In reality, any approach to theology must inevitably carry certain philosophical presuppositions and perspectives.

3. Dogmatic Theology

Dogmatic theology refers to those elements of theological truth which are absolutely certain. It will avoid controversial fields of study and will concentrate on those points about which the church throughout history has held to unswervingly, such the virgin birth, the resurrection, the Trinity, and the like.


4. Revealed Theology

Theology proper concerns itself with the study of the person of God, apart from his works. It deals with the existence of God, the ability of people to know God, his various attributes, and the nature of the Trinity. In other words, Theology Proper is concerned with understanding and knowing God.

5. Systematic Theology

6. Contextual theologies


The five kinds of theology are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and in fact, this essay will make use of all five sorts.