What is theology? Why theology?

The study of God and divine things.

 

Theology? That's whatever theologians do.

The word comes from Classic Greek studies of gods.
Two terms: theos and logos.
Logos: 'the study of' or 'a word about.'
Theos: 'god',

Theology is..'a word about god.

Defining the word 'theology' is not as simple as one might think. There is no one definition of the word 'theology.' It is not a biblical term; it does not appear in the pages of Scripture.

I'll give you one word for now to help us understand. The word is......."wisdom"

Wisdom was how the early church thought of theology, the art or science of knowing God.

 

theology is a system of theistic religion, or a rational analyses of the Christian religion. It is the orderly garden of the word. It is important to realize it is a form of Bible study and not separated from the Bible by human thought. It is separated from philosophy which analyzes human thought in a similar orderly process.

If one ignores theology he is also ignoring the word of God; the Bible.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Jim, long time no see... Glad to see you back Brother.

ology = study of
theos = God

theology = study of God

 

Who is Jesus? The Jesus we grew up with or the "Jesus Seminar" Jesus that is popular today? Theology answers that question.

As James White says, "Theology matters".:thumbs:

 

Theology DEFINITLY matters, it is how we get to better understand the Creator, It is what tells who we are in Christ, It is what shows us our depravity and God's Holiness.

I also think it should be taught to every believer, even children. Some of the best theological writings I have read are Puritan written catechisms for children. The fact is, in the broad sense everyone has a theology, that is why people should be taught right theology

Reformer

 

I think you have summed up the biggest problem among Churches today. We send our kids off to school in todays world where every Muslim, Mormon and atheist knows their theology better than our kids know theirs.

 

Theology is the study of God. We study God because Christ said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me."

 

Isn't that Christology?

 

A true christology will contain the sum of all categories of systematic theology, as the fullness of the godhead dwelt in Him bodily. :type: Which reminds me, there's a thread on systematic theology that I've forgotten about . . .

 

In the thread on Systematic Theology, I mentioned my study of Paul Tillich and James William McClendon, Jr. So, I thought I would give you a statement from each of them on their understanding of theology.

First, here are the opening sentences of Tillich's Systematic Theology:

Second, here is McClendon's definition from his Systematic Theology: Ethics:

Later, he says:

My mention of Tillich in the other thread drew some critical comments. No one mentioned McClendon because, I suspect, no one was familiar with him. I realize that some of you may have exploded by this time and won't be able to read this. I make no apologies for McClendon's position. His next section describes a baptist vision. By this he means

The elements of this vision include Biblicism, Mission (or evangelism), Liberty, Discipleship, and Community. Regardless of whether you see anything valuable in McClendon's thought, he is important because his theology is intentionally baptist (he uses a small "b").

Tillich speaks of the difficulty of maintaining balance between the eternal message and the contemporary situation in which the message is proclaimed and heard. McClendon describes theology, in generic terms, as being pervasive of every activity that the community is involved in. Between them they provide an organizing principle for beginning to do theology.

Tim Reynolds