Theology

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Augustine of Hippo (354–430), Christian theologian. His writing on free will and original sin remains influential in
Western Christendom.

Albert the Great (1193/1206–1280), patron saint of Roman Catholictheologians

Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as an academic
discipline, typically in universities and seminaries.[1]
Contents

EtymologyEdit
Main article: History of theology
Theology translates into English from the Greek theologia (θεολογία) which derived
from Τheos (Θεός), meaning "God", and -logia (-λογία),[2][3] meaning "utterances, sayings,
or oracles" (a word related to logos[λόγος], meaning "word, discourse, account,
or reasoning") which had passed into Latin as theologia and into French as théologie. The
English equivalent "theology" (Theologie, Teologye) had evolved by 1362.[4]The sense the
word has in English depends in large part on the sense the Latin and Greek equivalents had
acquired in patristic and medieval Christian usage, although the English term has now spread
beyond Christian contexts.
DefinitionEdit
Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as "reasoning or discussion
concerning the Deity";[5] Richard Hooker defined "theology" in English as "the science of
things divine".[6] The term can, however, be used for a variety of different disciplines or
fields of study.[7]
Theology begins with the assumption that the divine exists in some form, such as
in physical, supernatural, mental, or social realities, and that evidence for and about it may be
found via personal spiritual experiences or historical records of such experiences as
documented by others. The study of these assumptions is not part of theology proper but is
found in the philosophy of religion, and increasingly through the psychology of
religion and neurotheology. Theology then aims to structure and understand these
experiences and concepts, and to use them to derive normative prescriptions for how to live
our lives.
Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument
(experiential, philosophical, ethnographic, historical, and others) to help understand, explain,
test, critique, defend or promote any myriad of religious topics. As in philosophy of
ethics and case law, arguments often assume the existence of previously resolved questions,
and develop by making analogies from them to draw new inferences in new situations.
The study of theology may help a theologian more deeply understand their own
religious tradition,[8] another religious tradition,[9] or it may enable them to explore the nature
of divinity without reference to any specific tradition. Theology may be used
to propagate,[10] reform,[11] or justify a religious tradition or it may be used
to compare,[12] challenge (e.g. biblical criticism), or oppose (e.g. irreligion) a religious
tradition or world-view. Theology might also help a theologian to address some present
situation or need through a religious tradition,[13] or to explore possible ways of interpreting
the world.[14]
HistoryEdit
Greek theologia (θεολογία) was used with the meaning "discourse on god" in the fourth
century BC by Plato in The Republic, Book ii, Ch. 18.[15] Aristotle divided theoretical
philosophy into mathematike, physike and theologike, with the last corresponding roughly
to metaphysics, which, for Aristotle, included discourse on the nature of the divine.[16]
Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of such
discourse: mythical (concerning the myths of the Greek gods), rational (philosophical
analysis of the gods and of cosmology) and civil (concerning the rites and duties of public
religious observance).[17]
Theologos, closely related to theologia, appears once in some biblical manuscripts, in the
heading to the Book of Revelation: apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy, "the revelation of
John the theologos". There, however, the word refers not to John the "theologian" in the
modern English sense of the word but—using a slightly different sense of the root logos,
meaning not "rational discourse" but "word" or "message"—one who speaks the words of
God, logoi toy theoy.[18]
Some Latin Christian authors, such as Tertullian and Augustine, followed Varro's threefold
usage,[19] though Augustine also used the term more simply to mean 'reasoning or discussion
concerning the deity'[5]
In patristic Greek Christian sources, theologia could refer narrowly to devout and inspired
knowledge of, and teaching about, the essential nature of God.[20]
The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to denote a
subdivision of philosophy as a subject of academic study, dealing with the motionless,
incorporeal reality (as opposed to physica, which deals with corporeal, moving
realities).[21] Boethius' definition influenced medieval Latin usage.[22]
In scholastic Latin sources, the term came to denote the rational study of the doctrines of
the Christian religion, or (more precisely) the academic discipline which investigated the
coherence and implications of the language and claims of the Bible and of the theological
tradition (the latter often as represented in Peter Lombard's Sentences, a book of extracts from
the Church Fathers).[23]
In the Renaissance, especially with Florentine Platonist apologists of Dante's poetics, the
distinction between "poetic theology" (theologia poetica) and "revealed" or Biblical theology
serves as steppingstone for a revival of philosophy as independent of theological authority.
It is in this last sense, theology as an academic discipline involving rational study of Christian
teaching, that the term passed into English in the fourteenth century,[24] although it could also
be used in the narrower sense found in Boethius and the Greek patristic authors, to mean
rational study of the essential nature of God – a discourse now sometimes called theology
proper.[25]
From the 17th century onwards, it also became possible to use the term theology to refer to
study of religious ideas and teachings that are not specifically Christian (e.g., in the
term natural theology which denoted theology based on reasoning from natural facts
independent of specifically Christian revelation,[26]) or that are specific to another religion
(see below).
"Theology" can also now be used in a derived sense to mean "a system of theoretical
principles; an (impractical or rigid) ideology".[27]
In various religionsEdit
The term theology has been deemed by some as only appropriate to the study of religions that
worship a supposed deity (a theos), i.e. more widely than monotheism; and presuppose a
belief in the ability to speak and reason about this deity (in logia). They suggest the term is
less appropriate in religious contexts that are organized differently (religions without a single
deity, or that deny that such subjects can be studied logically). ("Hierology" has been
proposed as an alternative, more generic term.[28])
Abrahamic religionsEdit
JudaismEdit

Sculpture of the Jewish theologian Maimonides

In Jewish theology, the historical absence of political authority has meant that most
theological reflection has happened within the context of the Jewish community
and synagogue, rather than within specialized academic institutions, including
though Rabbinical discussion of Jewish law and Jewish Biblical
commentaries.[29]Historically it has been very active, and highly significant for Christian and
Islamic theology and well as for Judaism.[citation needed]
ChristianityEdit

Thomas Aquinas was the greatest Christian theologian of the Middle Ages.

Christian theology is the study of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates
primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and the New Testament as well as on Christian
tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exegesis, rational analysis and argument.
Theology might be undertaken to help the theologian better understand Christian tenets, to
make comparisons between Christianity and other traditions, to defend Christianity against
objections and criticism, to facilitate reforms in the Christian church, to assist in the
propagation of Christianity, to draw on the resources of the Christian tradition to address
some present situation or need, or for a variety of other reasons.
IslamEdit

Allamah Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi was the most influential Islamic theologian of the 20th century. [30]

Islamic theological discussion that parallels Christian theological discussion is named

"Kalam"; the Islamic analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be
the investigation and elaboration of Sharia or Fiqh. "Kalam ... does not hold the leading place
in Muslim thought that theology does in Christianity. To find an equivalent for 'theology' in
the Christian sense it is necessary to have recourse to several disciplines, and to the usul al-
fiqh as much as to kalam." (L. Gardet)[31]
Indian religionsEdit
BuddhismEdit
Some academic inquiries within Buddhism, dedicated to the investigation of a Buddhist
understanding of the world, prefer the designation Buddhist philosophy to the term Buddhist
theology, since Buddhism lacks the same conception of a theos. Jose Ignacio Cabezon, who
argues that the use of "theology" is appropriate, can only do so, he says, because "I take
theology not to be restricted to discourse on God ... I take 'theology' not to be restricted to its
etymological meaning. In that latter sense, Buddhism is of course atheological, rejecting as it
does the notion of God."[32]
HinduismEdit
Within Hindu philosophy, there is a tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the
universe, of God (termed "Brahman", Paramatma and Bhagavan in some schools of Hindu
thought) and of the Atman (soul). The Sanskrit word for the various schools of Hindu
philosophy is Darshana (meaning "view" or "viewpoint"). Vaishnava theology has been a
subject of study for many devotees, philosophers and scholars in India for centuries. A large
part of its study lies in classifying and organizing the manifestations of thousands of gods and
their aspects. In recent decades the study of Hinduism has also been taken up by a number of
academic institutions in Europe, such as the Oxford Centre for Hindu
Studies and Bhaktivedanta College.[33] See also: Krishnology