Theology
Overview
Study of the nature of God and the relationship of the human and divine.
The term was first used in the works of Plato and other Greek
philosophers to refer to the teaching of myth, but the discipline
expanded within Christianity and has found application in all theistic
religions (see theism). It examines doctrines concerning such subjects
as sin, faith, and grace and considers the terms of God’s covenant with
humankind in matters such as salvation and eschatology. Theology
typically takes for granted the authority of a religious teacher or the
validity of a religious experience. It is distinguished from philosophy
in being concerned with justifying and explicating a faith, rather than
questioning the underlying assumptions of such faith, but it often
employs quasi-philosophical methods.
Main
philosophically oriented discipline of religious speculation and
apologetics that is traditionally restricted, because of its origins and
format, to Christianity but that may also encompass, because of its
themes, other religions, including especially Islam and Judaism. The
themes of theology include God, humanity, the world, salvation, and
eschatology (the study of last times).
The subject matter of the discipline is treated in a number of other
articles. For a survey of systematic interpretations of the divine or
sacred, see agnosticism; atheism; deism; dualism; monotheism; nature
worship; pantheism; polytheism; theism; and totemism. For a survey of
major theological concerns within particular religions, see doctrine and
dogma. For treatment of Judeo-Christian theology in the context of other
aspects of the tradition, see biblical literature; Christianity; Eastern
Orthodoxy; Judaism; Protestantism; and Roman Catholicism. For a
treatment of Islamic theology, see Islam.
Nature of theology
The concept of theology that is applicable as a science in all religions
and that is therefore neutral is difficult to distill and determine. The
problem lies in the fact that, whereas theology as a concept had its
origins in the tradition of the ancient Greeks, it obtained its content
and method only within Christianity. Thus, theology, because of its
peculiarly Christian profile, is not readily transferable in its narrow
sense to any other religion. In its broader thematic concerns, however,
theology as a subject matter is germane to other religions.
The Greek philosopher Plato, 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
later Greek thought. In contrast to philosophers, “theologians” (e.g.,
the 8th-century-bce Greek poets Hesiod and Homer, the cultic servants of
the oracle at Delphi, and the rhetoricians 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).
Here, then, the above indicated difficulty becomes apparent. In the
first place, theology is a spiritual or religious attempt of “believers”
to explicate their faith. In this sense it is not neutral and is not
attempted from the perspective of removed observation—in contrast to a
general history of religions. The implication derived from the religious
approach is that it does not provide a formal and indifferent scheme
devoid of presuppositions within which all religions could be subsumed.
In the second place, theology is influenced by its origins in the Greek
and Christian traditions, with the implication that the transmutation of
this concept to other religions is endangered by the very circumstances
of origination. If one attempts, nevertheless, such a transmutation—and
if one then speaks of a theology of primitive religions and of a
theology of Buddhism—one must be aware of the fact that the concept
“theology,” which is uncustomary and also inadequate in those spheres,
is applicable only to a very limited extent and in a very modified form.
This is because some Eastern religions have atheistic qualities and
provide no access to the theos (“god”) of theology. If one nonetheless
speaks of theology in religions other than Christianity or Greek
religion, one implies—in formal analogy to what has been observed
above—the way in which representatives of other religions understand
themselves.
Relationship of theology to the history of religions and philosophy »
Relationship to the history of religions
If theology explicates the way in which the believer understands his
faith—or, if faith is not a dominating quality, the way in which a
religion’s practitioners understand their religion—this implies that it
claims to be normative, even if the claim does not, as in Hinduism and
Buddhism, culminate in the pretension to be absolutely authoritative.
The normative element in these religions arises simply out of the
authority of a divine teacher or out of a revelation (e.g., a vision or
auditory revelation) or some other kind of spiritual encounter as a
result of which one feels committed. The academic study of religion,
which encompasses also religious psychology, religious sociology, and
the history and phenomenology of religion as well as the philosophy of
religion, has emancipated itself from the normative aspect in favour of
a purely empirical analysis. This empirical aspect, which corresponds to
the modern conception of science, can be applied only if it functions on
the basis of objectifiable (empirically verifiable) entities. Revelation
of the kind of event that would have to be characterized as
transcendent, however, can never be understood as such an objectifiable
entity. Only those forms of religious life that are positive and arise
out of experience can be objectified. Wherever such forms are given, the
religious person is taken as the source of the religious phenomena that
are to be interpreted. Understood in this manner, the study of religion
represents a necessary step in the process of secularization.
Nevertheless, it cannot be said that theology and the history of
religions only contradict one another. The “theologies”—for want of a
better term—of the various religions are concerned with religious
phenomena, and the adherents of the religions of the more “advanced”
cultures are themselves constrained—especially at a time of increasing
cultural interdependency—to take cognizance of and to interpret
theologically the fact that besides their own religion there are many
others. In this regard, then, there are not only analytical but also
theological statements concerning religious phenomena, particularly in
regard to the manner in which such statements are encountered in
specific primitive or high religions. Thus, the objects of the history
of religions and those of theology cannot be clearly separated. They are
merely approached with different categories and criteria. If the history
of religions does not surrender its neutrality—since such a surrender
would thereby reduce the discipline to anthropology in an ideological
sense (e.g., religion understood as mere projection of the psyche or of
societal conditions)—theology will recognize the history of religions as
a science providing valuable material and as one of the sciences in the
universe of sciences.
Relationship of theology to the history of religions and philosophy »
Relationship to philosophy
The relationship of theology to philosophy is much more difficult to
determine, because it is much more complicated. The problems can here
only be mentioned. If one understands philosophy as the discipline that
attempts to explicate the totality of being, the difference between
philosophy and theology becomes apparent. If theology is responsible to
an authority that initiates its thinking, speaking, and witnessing—e.g.,
a document containing revealed truth, as well as the spiritual testimony
related to it—philosophy bases its arguments on the ground of timeless
evidence, an evidence with which autonomous reason understands itself to
be confronted. Since, on the other hand, theology also uses reason and
systematically develops its tenets—however much its critical reflections
are based on religious convictions—there are many common areas that have
partly complementary significance but that partly also lead to polemical
tensions.
The significance of theology » The religious significance of theology
Just as in the case of religions themselves, so also their theological
reflections are not limited to a special religious sphere, separated
from common life. Whoever speaks of God and the gods speaks at the same
time of humanity and of the meaning of existence. He makes therewith
statements about the world, its conditions of being created, its
estrangement from the purpose of creation (e.g., sin), and its
determined goal (eschatology, or view of the last times). Out of these
statements result normative directives for life in the world, not only
for the purpose of gaining salvation but also for concrete ethical
behaviour in the context of the I-Thou (or person to person)
relationship, of the clan, of the nation, and of society. In ancient
times, all aspects of life (e.g., the relationship between the sexes,
hygiene, and work, among others) were determined religiously and
permeated by cultic forms and practices. In this regard, every religion
contains the totality of being that its “theology” intends to express—if
one also includes certain rudiments of reflection in primitive religion
in the concept “theology.”
In primitive religions the tribe represents the pivot around which
all worldly relations turn. The primeval (or mythical) time to which the
tribe traces its own origins is also the time of salvation and
fulfillment. Therefore, primitive religions primarily concern themselves
with the ancestral cult. Involved in tribal concerns in the realm of
religious thought are conceptions of mana (spiritual power, or
force)—i.e., the teaching that tribal heads, medicine men, and sorcerers
are subjects of special charisma (spiritual power or influence) and more
potent powers of life. In Eastern religions, as in Western religions,
this understanding is infinitely refined, developed, and theologically
reflected. In regard to the relationship of humanity to the world, many
Eastern religions (especially Hinduism) have a definite skeptically
tinged negative view of all reality, which is especially pronounced in
contrast to the Christian doctrine of creation. Although this doctrine
points to a “happy event” in Christianity, the call to life and reality
is understood in Eastern thought in the opposite manner. As the Scottish
religious scholar and missionary Stephen Neill wrote:
To be man implies being cut off from all true reality. Creation
should have never happened, and its faults should be eliminated as soon
as possible.…The illusion that I am is a calamity. Not death is to be
explained, but rather birth.
The significance of theology » The cultural importance of theology
Since theology does not remain restricted to transcendent statements and
to an esoteric and sacred realm, and since it rather encompasses all
worldly dimensions (cosmology, anthropology, historiography, and other
areas), it has always had important significance for cultural evolution
and general intellectual life. Western historians hardly need to be
reminded of the fact that the prophetic theology of history in the
Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)—e.g., the 8th-century-bce Hebrew prophets
Amos and Isaiah—decisively influenced the origins of the concept of
history and, indeed, made this concept possible in the first place. A
Hebrew Bible theology of history is based on the understanding of
history as a linear process, as directed to a goal (i.e., the Kingdom of
God) and as qualified by the characteristic of singularity. This view of
history contrasts with a cyclical understanding of successive
events—i.e., the view that history repeats itself. The fact that
university and school were originally initiated by the church (as is
still very often the case in mission fields) is based on the fact that
theology has thematized in its various subjects the various dimensions
of life (nature, history, ethics, and other disciplinary areas). Also,
much of modern philosophy has emerged out of theological themes and
categories; even in the works of Karl Marx remnants of this fact are
still observable. Modern philosophy has, by and large, only gradually
emancipated itself from this theological origin, but this emancipation
also has taken place in a manner that has retained the dialectical
relationship of theology and philosophy. That theological questions in
the modern age of secularism are less openly posed than in the time of
the Middle Ages does not reduce their lasting significance. They always
reemerge, often in disguised form, such as in the quest for the meaning
of life and existence or in the nihilistic resignation regarding that
quest; furthermore, they reemerge in the quest for the dignity of human
existence, the inviolability of life, the determination of human rights,
and many other such questions. The German American theologian Paul
Tillich investigated specifically the secular realm in view of the
relevance of these latent theological questions.
Theological themes
The themes discussed by theology are of universal dimensions. They
encompass the doctrine of God, of humanity, and of the world. Even when
no “doctrine of God” exists in the strict sense of the term, as in the
case of what are sometimes called “atheistic” religions (e.g., certain
forms of Hinduism and Buddhism), humanity and the world are understood
in the context of finality and therefore have religious aspects. The
inclusion of the world in theological discussion also implies that
behaviour in the world—that is, ethics—is included in theology; in some
areas (e.g., Confucianism) this aspect gains a dominating position.
Ethical conceptions—derived from theological concepts in the broad
meaning of theology—are developed in contradictory forms: they can lead
to ascetic world denial but also to a definite world affirmation. The
first form is realized in Buddhism and Hinduism, the second in
Confucianism. In Christianity both forms are represented. The
theological theme of the relation of humanity and the world has been
described by the 17th-century French scientist and philosopher Blaise
Pascal as the doctrine of the “dignity and poverty of man”—i.e., the
doctrine of creation and fall—and, related to this, the proclamation of
salvation and the presentation of a path to salvation. This path leads,
in the various religions, into greatly diverging directions. It can be
placed under the exclusive direction of divine grace (as in Amida
Buddhism and in Protestant Christianity); it can be left to the activity
and initiative of humanity (as in Confucianism); or it can be
characterized by a combination of the two principles (as in Zen Buddhism
and in the Roman Catholic combination of grace and merit). Finally,
theology also includes among its various themes statements concerning
the process and goal of history (eschatology), especially concerning the
relation of secular history and the history of salvation.
Functions of theology
The vastness of theological interests and aspects implies that theology
can master the material with which it is confronted only within a broad
spectrum of partial disciplines. Since theology is based on authority
(revelation), and since this authority is documented in the scriptures
(especially in Christianity), it is constrained to engage in
philological and historical studies of these sources and, related to
these studies, also with hermeneutical (critical interpretive)
questions. This historical task broadens into a concern with the history
and tradition of the religion that a particular theology represents. In
this concern many difficult and controversial questions arise, including
whether and to what extent the canon (scriptural standard) of the
sources of revelation is glossed over and modified by tradition and what
normative value the modifying tradition has or should have. These
problems play an important part in the relationship between
Protestantism and Catholicism, even though the problems are also treated
independently by each confession.
The question of truth posed by theology requires the constitution of
a discipline that specifically concerns itself with fundamental
questions (systematic theology). Its task can be determined in the
following manner: (1) It has to develop the totality of religious
teachings (dogmatics, or the doctrine of faith). (2) It has to interpret
humanity’s existence in the world and, related to this, to determine the
norms (ethics derived from faith) for action in the world—e.g., for
one’s disposition toward fellow humans and toward societal and political
structures and institutions. (3) It further has to represent its claim
to truth in the context of confrontation with other claims to truth and
with other criteria of verification (apologetics, polemics). As part of
this concern, theology’s task is to explain reasonably, in view of
historical relativism, the absolute claim of the truth that it
represents. Related to this is the modern-day task of coordinating its
doctrine of creation or its doctrine of the revelation of the
transcendent (e.g., the Christ event in Christianity) with the worldview
of modern natural science and its thesis of the immanency of being—i.e.,
of being that is self-contained. Another aspect of this task is the
confrontation with other religions’ claims to truth, which can lead to
vastly different results: either—this is noted only as an example—it can
lead to the thesis of the complementary positions of individual
religions and therefore to tolerance (as, for example, in Hinduism as
well as in some schools in the West) or to one’s own religion’s claim to
be absolute (as in Christianity, at least among the most important of
its representatives). But also, in the last mentioned situation, such a
claim is widely modified. It can manifest itself by a total rejection of
other religions as “devil’s work,” but it can also be expressed in an
interpretation of other religions as first steps to and as seeds of a
religious development, the completion of which it knows itself to be.
The vast dimension of theological themes implies that theology is,
with its many disciplines, a microcosmic image of the university. Even
though it is a science in which the believers or the adherents of a
particular religion explicate and critically analyze the truth that is
represented by them, it nevertheless has to remain free within the
framework of this commitment, and it has to fulfill the responsibility
of its scientific task on the basis of its own autonomy. The opposite of
this freedom would arise when an institution (e.g., the church)
restricts the range of theological inquiry with normative claims,
forcing the discipline therewith to assume ideological functions. The
struggle concerning the freedom and limitations of theology—i.e.,
concerning responsible criticism and authority—is a struggle that has
accompanied the history of theology from the very beginnings to the
present.
Helmut Thielicke
History of theology » Origins
The term theology is derived from the Latin theologia (“study [or
understanding] of God [or the gods]”), which itself is derived from the
Greek theos (“God”) and logos (“reason”). Theology originated with the
pre-Socratic philosophers (the philosophers of ancient Greece who
flourished before the time of Socrates [c. 470–399 bce]). Inspired by
the cosmogonic notions of earlier poets such as Hesiod and Homer, the
pre-Socratics were preoccupied with questions about the origin and
ultimate nature of the universe. The first great theologian, however,
was Socrates’ student Plato, who appears also to have been the first to
use the term theology. For Plato, theology was the study of eternal
realities, the realm of what he called forms, or ideas. For his pupil
Aristotle (384–322 bce), theology was the study of the highest form of
reality, the “first substance,” which he seems to have regarded at
different times as the “unmoved mover” and as “being qua being.”
Aristotle spoke of three theoretical, or speculative, ways of knowing:
the mathematical, the physical, and the theological, with theology being
the “most honourable.”
The notion of theology as the study or contemplation (theoria) of the
highest form of reality became commonplace in the Hellenistic philosophy
of the Roman world in which Christianity emerged. In that world, the
quest for God acquired for many people—including both Christians and
non-Christians—a certain urgency, in part because of the recognized
inadequacy of the traditional pagan religions and the social and
political turmoil of the era. Accordingly, philosophical speculation
about the ultimate nature of reality assumed a distinctly religious
cast. The “lower” studies of logic and ethics and the observation of
nature came to be regarded as preparatory training for communion with
the divine.
These ideas very quickly found acceptance among Christian thinkers,
notably the 3rd-century theologian Origen, who described the three
stages in the Christian’s advance to communion with God as the ethical,
the physical, and the “epoptic,” or visionary. Origen’s triad was
developed by the 4th-century monastic Evagrius Ponticus, who
distinguished between praktiki (ascetic struggle), physiki
(contemplation of the natural order), and theologia (theology as
contemplation of God). The understanding of theology as the fruit of
sustained ascetic struggle, as the highest exercise of the human mind,
and as prayer quickly established itself in Greek Christianity, and this
interpretation is still fundamental in Eastern Orthodox theology. It is
expressed succinctly in Evagrius’s oft-quoted assertion: “If you are a
theologian, you will pray truly; if you pray truly, you will be a
theologian.”
Alongside this sense of theology, Christians also understood the word
theologia to mean the study of the divine, or the unraveling of the
nature of the divine as revealed in the Bible. Christians believed that
God reveals himself in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) through the
history of the chosen people of Israel and in the New Testament through
Jesus Christ, the incarnation of the Son of God. A distinction quickly
developed in Christian reflection on God between theologia, strictly
understood as the study of God in himself—that is, the study of God’s
divine nature—and oikonomia, understood to mean the study of God’s
activities in the created order, particularly the acts of creation and
redemption. Because God is known only through his self-manifestation in
the created order, however, the distinction between theologia and
oikonomia is easily blurred. Nevertheless, it remains fundamental in
Greek theology.
History of theology » Late antiquity and the Middle Ages
The development of Christian theology was decisively influenced by an
unknown writer of the early 6th century whose works circulated under the
name of Dionysius the Areopagite, the Athenian disciple of St. Paul the
Apostle (the writer is therefore often called Pseudo-Dionysius). In the
writings of Pseudo-Dionysius, God is depicted as revealing himself to
the created order through hierarchies of angels and through the
hierarchy of the church. Pseudo-Dionysius also introduced a number of
distinctions about the nature of theology that were destined to be of
profound influence. His short treatise The Mystical Theology discusses
affirmative and negative (kataphatic and apophatic) theologies, symbolic
theology, and mystical theology. Pseudo-Dionysius borrowed the
kataphatic-apophatic distinction from the great 5th-century Neoplatonist
philosopher Proclus: whereas a kataphatic theology affirms what God has
revealed of himself (in creation and revelation), an apophatic theology
negates everything ascribed to God because human concepts and images are
inadequate to describe his reality. Symbolic theology, as
Pseudo-Dionysius understood it, is an extension of kataphatic theology
that seeks to interpret symbols and images that are used in the
Scriptures to express God’s nature and activity. Mystical, or hidden,
theology seems to be the experience of the divine reality to which
apophatic theology points—the equivalent of theologia in the sense in
which Evagrius Ponticus used the term. This identification was made
explicit by the 11th-century Byzantine theologian Nicetas Stethatos.
With the development in Western theology of increasingly sharp
distinctions between nature and grace, the natural and the supernatural,
and reason and revelation, theologians became interested in what truths
about God could be established by reason alone. Called natural theology
(theologia naturalis), as opposed to revealed theology (theologia
revelata), this discipline became particularly important in arguments
between Christians on the one hand and Jews and Muslims on the other,
because the arguments of natural theology did not depend on the
acceptance of revelation.
The systematic presentations that characterized Western theology in
the 13th century (the age of the Schoolmen, or Scholastics) were often
prefaced by an account of what could be established by reason about God;
usually the first thing to be established was his existence. The most
famous set of such arguments is the so-called Five Ways of St. Thomas
Aquinas, which appears in his greatest work, the Summa theologiae
(1265/66–1273). Aquinas claimed to have established the existence of God
as the unmoved mover, as the ultimate efficient cause, as the necessary
being, as the perfect being, and as the final cause of all beings. For
Aquinas, such natural theology was part of the sacra doctrina (“sacred
doctrine”) of the church.
The century following Aquinas was marked by the development of the
“theology of the two powers,” which distinguished between what God can
do absolutely (potentia absoluta), or logically, and what he has bound
himself to do in accordance with the covenant he established with
humankind (potentia ordinata). This distinction helped sharpen the
division between what is necessarily so, which could be explored by
reason, and what God has revealed about himself and his relations with
humankind. The contrast between reason and revelation was reflected in
the continued development of natural theology and revealed theology .
In the late Middle Ages a further division occurred between “rational
theology” (which usually embraced both natural and revealed theology)
and a theology of felt experience, often called “mystical theology,” a
designation consciously borrowed from Pseudo-Dionysius. Mystical
theology came to be identified with the experience of God and with
contemplation of the divine. An alternative approach, known as
“ascetical theology,” involved seeking God through a life of prayer,
devotion, self-denial, and mortification.
History of theology » The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the
Enlightenment
During the Renaissance, medieval theology suffered further
fragmentation, but theologians also acquired new conceptual tools. The
late-medieval conception of Christianity had emphasized its contingent
nature, its truth being not a logical necessity but the result of the
will of God. Although few, if any, of the thinkers of the Renaissance
wished to undermine Christianity, their awareness of its contingency led
them to look for some underlying truth, a “primordial revelation” that
would make sense of both Christianity and the religions of classical and
late antiquity. This truth was often identified with the so-called
Hermetic wisdom attributed to Hermes Trismegistos (Hermes the
Thrice-Greatest), the Greek name of Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing.
Although Hermetic teachings were thought to be of unimaginable
antiquity, in reality the writings from which they were drawn (the
Hermetic writings) date from only the mid-1st to the late 3rd centuries.
The theology of the primordial revelation was called pristina
theologia (“pristine theology”), or the theology of human primal
innocence. Pristina theologia provided the starting point for many
attempts by thinkers of the Renaissance to penetrate behind the faded
texture of the religious systems of their day to what was thought to be
some ultimate forgotten truth. Often it was studied in combination with
mystical theology, which was thought to authenticate pristina theologia
by providing a felt experience of the ultimate. Out of this potent
mixture emerged the Renaissance revival of alchemy, movements such as
the Rosicrucians, and the elaborately symbolic mysticism of the German
thinker Jakob Böhme (1575–1624).
With the turn of the 18th century, the ideas of the Renaissance came
to assume a somewhat more somber hue: pristina theologia yielded to
natural religion—that is, the principles of religion that can be
established by reason alone (e.g., that God exists). Natural religion
was then contrasted with positive religion, or the particular religious
traditions of different societies or cultures. This distinction would
become axiomatic in Protestant theology during the Enlightenment and in
much of the post-Enlightenment period. The Enlightenment belief in the
contingent nature of revelation led scholars of the period to treat the
sacred books of Christianity as historically determined rather than as
witnesses to, or embodiments of, divine revelation. This conception soon
created, as the German writer Gotthold Lessing described it, an “ugly,
broad ditch” between the history to which the Scriptures belonged and
bore witness and the eternal truths that the dogmatic systems had
derived from them.
History of theology » The 19th century to the present
In the 19th century, European colonialism led to the rediscovery,
translation, and publication of a wealth of sacred writings from the
indigenous cultures of Asia and Africa, which encompassed both living
religions—especially Hinduism and Buddhism—and religions of antiquity,
especially those of Egypt. Treatises of the Hermetic tradition and
codices containing texts of the gnostics were discovered during the 19th
and 20th centuries. Access to such a hitherto unimaginable richness of
religious traditions led to many attempts to explore and draw
connections between them, often using theological categories drawn from
Christianity. It also led to a revival of the Renaissance quest for some
ultimate religion underlying them all, though the geographical source of
such a pristina theologia was generally thought to lie much farther to
the east than ancient Egypt.
Christian theology itself was not unaffected by these discoveries,
though it was more immediately affected by other currents, notably from
the Enlightenment. Attempts were made during the 19th century to leap
across the ditch that Lessing had lamented—notably by the Danish
philosopher Søren Kierkegaard—but the long-term effect was further
fragmentation of Protestant (and eventually Roman Catholic) theology,
leading to the separation of biblical theology (the theological study of
God’s progressive revelation of himself through the stages of biblical
history) from dogmatic or systematic theology. This tendency was further
accelerated by the increasing academic independence of universities
(where theology had generally been studied). Eventually, several
additional theological subdisciplines emerged, including Old Testament
theology, New Testament theology, church history (or sometimes
historical theology), pastoral or practical theology, and even
“spiritual” theology, often understood as a combination of ascetic and
mystical theology. This fragmentation of theology cast into doubt the
coherence of the whole enterprise.
In later, nonacademic usage, the term theology came to mean a
religiously coloured, or sometimes religiously informed, study of some
matter. In this sense one might speak of a theology of society, in which
political and economic considerations are informed by religious
principles, or of a theology of poetry, in which the play of image and
allusion characteristic of poetry is drawn upon to understand religious
language. In informal usage, theology has come to convey the sense of
something remotely theoretical and impractical. The wide application of
the term, as well as the current fragmented state of the discipline,
indicate the extent to which the classical concept of theology as the
highest pursuit of the intellect has been transformed over the
centuries.
Andrew Louth
