, patron saint of Roman Catholic theologians]]
Theology is the study of God or, more generally, the study of
religious faith, practice,
experience or of
spirituality.
Definition
Augustine of Hippo defined the
Latin equivalent,
theologia, as "reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity";
Richard Hooker defined "theology" in
English as "the science of things divine". The term can, however, be used for a variety of different disciplines or forms of discourse.
Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument (
philosophical,
ethnographic,
historical,
spiritual and others) to help
understand,
explain, test,
critique, defend or promote any of myriad
religious topics. Theology might be undertaken to help the theologian
understand more truly his or her own religious
tradition,
understand more truly another religious tradition,
make
comparisons between religious traditions,
defend or justify a religious tradition,
facilitate reform of a particular tradition,
assist in the
propagation of a religious tradition, or
draw on the resources of a tradition to address some present situation or need,
draw on the resources of a tradition to explore possible ways of interpreting the world, or
explore the nature of divinity without reference to any specific tradition.
History of the term
Theology translates into English the
Greek theologia (θεολογία) (from
theos (θεός) meaning god and
logos (λόγος) meaning word,
discourse, or
reasoning, plus the abstract substantive suffix
ia), which had passed into Latin as
theologia and into French as
théologie. The English equivalent "theology" (Theologie, Teologye) had evolved by 1362. 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, though the English term has now spread beyond Christian contexts.
* Greek theologia (θεολογια) was used with the meaning "discourse on god" in the fourth century B.C. by Plato in The Republic, Book ii, Ch. 18. Aristotle divided theoretical philosophy into mathematike, physike and theologike, with the latter corresponding roughly to metaphysics, which, for Aristotle, included discourse on the nature of the divine.
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).
* 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.
Some Latin Christian authors, such as Tertullian and Augustine, followed Varro's threefold usage, though Augustine also used the term more simply to mean 'reasoning or discussion concerning the deity'
* In Patristic Greek Christian sources, theologia could refer narrowly to devout and inspired knowledge of, and teaching about, the essential nature of God.
* In some medieval Greek and Latin sources, theologia (in the sense of "an account or record of the ways of God") could refer simply to the Bible.
* 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). Boethius' definition influenced medieval Latin usage.
* 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).
* 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, though 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.
* 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 phrase 'Natural Theology' which denoted theology based on reasoning from natural facts independent of specifically Christian revelation ), 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."
Religions other than Christianity
In academic theological circles there is some debate as to whether theology is an activity peculiar to the Christian religion, such that the word "theology" should be reserved for
Christian theology, and other words used to name analogous discourses within other religious traditions. It is seen by some to be a term only appropriate to the study of religions that worship a
deity (a
theos), and to presuppose belief in the ability to speak and
reason about this deity (in
logia)—and so to be less appropriate in religious contexts that are organized differently (religions without a deity, or that deny that such subjects can be studied logically). ("
Hierology" has been proposed as an alternative, more generic term.)
Analogous discourses
Some academic inquiries within
Buddhism, dedicated to the rational 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."
Within
Hindu philosophy, there is a solid and ancient tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the universe, of God (termed "
Brahman" 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, and in recent decades also has been taken on by a number of academic institutions in Europe, such as the
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and
Bhaktivedanta College.
See also: Krishnology
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
Islamic law, 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)
In
Judaism, 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. Nevertheless, Jewish theology historically has been very active and highly significant for Christian and Islamic theology. It is sometimes claimed, however, that the Jewish analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be
Rabbinical discussion of
Jewish law and
Jewish Biblical commentaries.
Theology as an academic discipline
The history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as old as the
history of such institutions themselves. For example,
Taxila was an early centre of Vedic learning, possible from the 6th century BC or earlier; the
Platonic Academy founded in Athens in the 4th century BC seems to have included theological themes in its subject matter; the Chinese
Taixue delivered Confucian teaching from the 2nd century BC; the
School of Nisibis was a centre of Christian learning from the 4th century AD;
Nalanda in India was a site of Buddhist higher learning from at least the 5th or 6th century AD; and the Moroccan
University of Al-Karaouine was a centre of Islamic learning from the 10th century, as was
Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
Modern Western universities evolved from the monastic institutions and (especially) cathedral schools of Western Europe during the High Middle Ages (see, for instance, the University of Bologna, Paris University and Oxford University). From the beginning, Christian theological learning was therefore a central component in these institutions, as was the study of Church or Canon law): universities played an important role in training people for ecclesiastical offices, in helping the church pursue the clarification and defence of its teaching, and in supporting the legal rights of the church over against secular rulers. At such universities, theological study was initially closely tied to the life of faith and of the church: it fed, and was fed by, practices of preaching, prayer and celebration of the Mass.
During the High Middle Ages, theology was therefore the ultimate subject at universities, being named "The Queen of the Sciences" and serving as the capstone to the Trivium and Quadrivium that young men were expected to study. This meant that the other subjects (including Philosophy) existed primarily to help with theological thought.
Christian theology’s preeminent place in the university began to be challenged during the European Enlightenment, especially in Germany. other subjects gained in independence and prestige, and questions were raised about the place in institutions that were increasingly understood to be devoted to independent reason of a discipline that seemed to involve commitment to the authority of particular religious traditions.
Since the early nineteenth century, various different approaches have emerged in the West to theology as an academic discipline. Much of the debate concerning theology's place in the university or within a general higher education curriculum centres on whether theology's methods are appropriately theoretical and (broadly speaking) scientific or, on the other hand, whether theology requires a pre-commitment of faith by its practitioners, and whether such a commitment conflicts with academic freedom.
Theology and ministerial training
In some contexts, theology has been held to belong in institutions of Higher Education primarily as a form of professional training for Christian ministry. This was the basis on which
Friedrich Schleiermacher, a liberal theologian, argued for the inclusion of theology in the new University of Berlin in 1810.
For instance, in Germany, theological faculties at State universities are typically tied to particular denominations, Protestant or Roman Catholic, and those faculties will offer denominationally bound (konfessionsgebunden) degrees, and have denominationally bound public posts amongst their faculty; as well as contributing ‘to the development and growth of Christian knowledge’ they ‘provide the academic training for the future clergy and teachers of religious instruction at German schools.’
In the U.S.A., several prominent colleges and universities were started in order to train Christian ministers. Harvard, Georgetown University, Boston University, Yale, and Princeton all had the theological training of clergy as a primary purpose at their foundation.
Seminaries and Bible colleges have continued this alliance between the academic study of theology and training for Christian ministry. There are, for instance, numerous prominent US examples, including The Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Criswell College in Dallas, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, and Dallas Theological Seminary.
Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri.
Theology as an academic discipline in its own right
In some contexts, theology is pursued as an academic discipline without formal affiliation to any particular church (though individual members of staff may well have affiliations to different churches), and without ministerial training being a central part of their purpose. This is true, for instance, of many Departments in the United Kingdom, including the Department of Theology and Religion at the
University of Exeter, and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the
University of Leeds.
Theology and religious studies
In some contemporary contexts, a distinction is made between theology, which is seen as involving some level of commitment to the truth of the religious tradition being studied, and
religious studies, which is not. If contrasted with theology in this way, religious studies is normally seen as requiring the bracketing of the question of the truth of the religious traditions studied, and as involving the study of the historical or contemporary practices or ideas those traditions using intellectual tools and frameworks that are not themselves specifically tied to any religious tradition, and that are normally understood to be neutral or secular. In contexts where 'religious studies' in this sense is the focus, the primary forms of study are likely to include:
Anthropology of religion,
Comparative religion,
History of religions,
Philosophy of religion,
Psychology of religion, and
Sociology of religion.
Theology and religious studies are sometimes seen as being in tension; they are sometimes held to coexist without serious tension; and it is sometimes denied that there is as clear a boundary between them as the brief description here suggests.
Criticism
Whether or not reasoned discussion about the divine is possible has long been a point of contention. As early as the fifth century BC,
Protagoras, who is reputed to have been exiled from Athens because of his agnosticism about the existence of the gods, said that "Concerning the gods I cannot know either that they exist or that they do not exist, or what form they might have, for there is much to prevent one's knowing: the
obscurity of the subject and the shortness of man's life."
In his two part The Age of Reason, the American revolutionary Thomas Paine, wrote, "The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion. Not anything can be studied as a science, without our being in possession of the principles upon which it is founded; and as this is the case with Christian theology, it is therefore the study of nothing."
The atheist philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach sought to dissolve theology in his work Principles of the Philosophy of the Future: "The task of the modern era was the realization and humanization of God - the transformation and dissolution of theology into anthropology." This mirrored his earlier work The Essence of Christianity (pub. 1841), for which he was banned from teaching in Germany, in which he had said that theology was a "web of contradictions and delusions".
In his essay "Critique of Ethics and Theology" the logical-positivist A.J. Ayer sought to show that all statements about the divine are nonsensical and any divine-attribute is unprovable. He wrote: "It is now generally admitted, at any rate by philosophers, that the existence of a being having the attributes which define the god of any non-animistic religion cannot be demonstratively proved... [A]ll utterances about the nature of God are nonsensical."
In his essay, "Against Theology", the philosopher Walter Kaufmann sought to differentiate theology from religion in general. "Theology, of course, is not religion; and a great deal of religion is emphatically anti-theological... An attack on theology, therefore, should not be taken as necessarily involving an attack on religion. Religion can be, and often has been, untheological or even anti-theological." However, Kaufmann found that "Christianity is inescapably a theological religion".
See also
Footnotes
Category:Theology
Category:Greek loanwords
