, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and to reveal themselves to humankind.
Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument (
, 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,[2] another religious tradition,[3] or it may enable them to explore the nature of divinity without reference to any specific tradition. Theology may be used to propagate,[4] reform,[5] or justify a religious tradition; or it may be used to compare,[6] challenge (e.g. biblical criticism), or oppose (e.g. irreligion) a religious tradition or worldview. Theology might also help a theologian address some present situation or need through a religious tradition,[7] or to explore possible ways of interpreting the world.[8]
The term would pass on to Latin as theologia, then French as théologie, eventually becoming the English theology.
Through several variants (e.g., theologie, teologye), the English theology had evolved into its current form by 1362.[11] The sense that the word has in English depends in large part on the sense that the Latin and Greek equivalents had acquired in patristic and medieval Christian usage although the English term has now spread beyond Christian contexts.
Classical philosophy
Greek theologia (θεολογία) was used with the meaning 'discourse on God' around 380 BC by
The Republic.[12]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.[13]
Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of such discourse:[14]
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.
Later usage
Some Latin Christian authors, such as Tertullian and Augustine, followed Varro's threefold usage.[14][15] However, Augustine also defined theologia as "reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity".[16]
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.[17] Boethius' definition influenced medieval Latin usage.[18]
In patristic Greek Christian sources, theologia could refer narrowly to devout and/or inspired knowledge of and teaching about the essential nature of God.[19]
In
Christian religion, or (more precisely) the academic discipline that 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).[citation needed
]
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 stepping stone for a revival of philosophy as independent of theological authority.[citation needed]
It is in the last sense, theology as an academic discipline involving rational study of Christian teaching, that the term passed into English in the 14th century,[20] 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.[21]
From the 17th century onwards, the term theology began to be used to refer to the study of religious ideas and teachings that are not specifically Christian or correlated with Christianity (e.g., in the term natural theology, which denoted theology based on reasoning from natural facts independent of specifically Christian revelation)[22] or that are specific to another religion (such as below).
Theology can also be used in a derived sense to mean "a system of theoretical principles; an (impractical or rigid) ideology".[23][24]
In religion
The term theology has been deemed by some as only appropriate to the study of
Hierology has been proposed, by such people as Eugène Goblet d'Alviella (1908), as an alternative, more generic term.[25]
spiritual path. Christian theology as the study of Christian belief and practice 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.
Islamic theological discussion that parallels Christian theological discussion is called Kalam; the Islamic analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be the investigation and elaboration of Sharia or Fiqh.[27]
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.
— translated by L. Gardet
Some Universities in Germany established departments of islamic theology. (i.e. [28])
Judaism
Main article:
Jewish theology
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
Jewish law and Midrash (rabbinic biblical commentaries). Jewish theology is also linked to ethics, as it is the case with theology in other religions, and therefore has implications for how one behaves.[29][30]
Indian religions
Buddhism
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 in fact 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."[31]
In Japan, the term theology (神学, shingaku) has been ascribed to Shinto since the Edo period with the publication of Mano Tokitsuna's Kokon shingaku ruihen (古今神学類編, 'categorized compilation of ancient theology'). In modern times, other terms are used to denote studies in Shinto—as well as Buddhist—belief, such as kyōgaku (教学, 'doctrinal studies') and shūgaku (宗学, 'denominational studies').
Modern Paganism
English academic Graham Harvey has commented that Pagans "rarely indulge in theology".[33] Nevertheless, theology has been applied in some sectors across contemporary Pagan communities, including Wicca, Heathenry, Druidry and Kemetism. As these religions have given precedence to orthopraxy, theological views often vary among adherents. The term is used by Christine Kraemer in her book Seeking The Mystery: An Introduction to Pagan Theologies and by Michael York in Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion.
Topics
Further information:
neurotheology. Theology's aim, then, is to record, structure and understand these experiences and concepts; and to use them to derive normative prescriptions for how to live our lives
.
History of 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 instance:
Vedic learning, possible from the 6th-century BC or earlier;[36][37]
: 140–2
the Platonic Academy founded in Athens in the 4th-century BC seems to have included theological themes in its subject matter;[38]
the Chinese Taixue delivered Confucian teaching from the 2nd century BC;[39]
During the High Middle Ages, theology was the ultimate subject at universities, being named "The Queen of the Sciences". It served 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.[48]
In this context, medieval theology in the Christian West could subsume fields of study which would later become more self-sufficient, such as
Christian theology's preeminent place in the university started to come under challenge during the European Enlightenment, especially in Germany.[53] Other subjects gained in independence and prestige, and questions were raised about the place of a discipline that seemed to involve a commitment to the authority of particular religious traditions in institutions that were increasingly understood to be devoted to independent reason.[54]
Since the early 19th 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.[53][55][56][57]
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.[58][53]: ch.14
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."[59]
In the United States, several prominent colleges and universities were started in order to train Christian ministers.
In some contexts, scholars pursue theology as an academic discipline without formal affiliation to any particular church (though members of staff may well have affiliations to churches), and without focussing on ministerial training. This applies, for instance, to the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University in Canada, and to many university departments in the United Kingdom, including the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Exeter, and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Leeds.[73][74] Traditional academic prizes, such as the University of Aberdeen's Lumsden and Sachs Fellowship, tend to acknowledge performance in theology (or divinity as it is known at Aberdeen) and in religious studies.
Religious studies
In some contemporary contexts, a distinction is made between theology, which is seen as involving some level of commitment to the claims of the religious tradition being studied, and religious studies, which by contrast is normally seen as requiring that the question of the truth or falsehood of the religious traditions studied be kept outside its field. Religious studies involves the study of historical or contemporary practices or of those traditions' ideas 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.[75] In contexts where 'religious studies' in this sense is the focus, the primary forms of study are likely to include:
Sometimes, theology and religious studies are seen as being in tension,[76] and at other times, they are held to coexist without serious tension.[77]
Occasionally it is denied that there is as clear a boundary between them.[78]
Whether or not reasoned discussion about the divine is possible has long been a point of contention.
BC, 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."[79][80]
Since at least the eighteenth century, various authors have criticized the suitability of theology as an academic discipline.
Box of Pandora. Many good things lie uppermost in it; but many evil lie under them, and scatter plagues and desolation throughout the world."[82]
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 German 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."[84] This mirrored his earlier work The Essence of Christianity (1841), for which he was banned from teaching in Germany, in which he had said that theology was a "web of contradictions and delusions".[85]
The American satirist Mark Twain remarked in his essay "The Lowest Animal", originally written in around 1896, but not published until after Twain's death in 1910, that:[86][87]
[Man] is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn't straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother's path to happiness and heaven.... The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste.
20th and 21st centuries
A. J. Ayer, a British former logical-positivist, sought to show in his essay "Critique of Ethics and Theology" 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."[88]
Jewish atheist philosopher Walter Kaufmann, in his essay "Against Theology", sought to differentiate theology from religion in general:[89]
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."[89]
English atheist Charles Bradlaugh believed theology prevented human beings from achieving liberty,[90] although he also noted that many theologians of his time held that, because modern scientific research sometimes contradicts sacred scriptures, the scriptures must therefore be wrong.[91]Robert G. Ingersoll, an American agnostic lawyer, stated that, when theologians had power, the majority of people lived in hovels, while a privileged few had palaces and cathedrals. In Ingersoll's opinion, it was science that improved people's lives, not theology. Ingersoll further maintained that trained theologians reason no better than a person who assumes the devil must exist because pictures resemble the devil so exactly.[92]
The British evolutionary biologistRichard Dawkins has been an outspoken critic of theology.[81][93] In an article published in The Independent in 1993, he severely criticizes theology as entirely useless,[93] declaring that it has completely and repeatedly failed to answer any questions about the nature of reality or the human condition.[93] He states, "I have never heard any of them [i.e. theologians] ever say anything of the smallest use, anything that was not either platitudinously obvious or downright false."[93] He then states that, if all theology were completely eradicated from the earth, no one would notice or even care. He concludes:[93]
The achievements of theologians don't do anything, don't affect anything, don't achieve anything, don't even mean anything. What makes you think that 'theology' is a subject at all?
^See e.g., Anne Hunt Overzee's gloss upon the view of Ricœur (1913–2005) as to the role and work of 'theologian': "Paul Ricœur speaks of the theologian as a hermeneut, whose task is to interpret the multivalent, rich metaphors arising from the symbolic bases of tradition so that the symbols may 'speak' once again to our existential situation."
Overzee, Anne Hunt. 1992. The Body Divine: The Symbol of the Body in the Works of Teilhard de Chardin and RamanujaArchived 26 March 2023 at the
^Scouteris, Constantine B. [1972] 2016. Ἡ ἔννοια τῶν ὅρων 'Θεολογία', 'Θεολογεῖν', 'Θεολόγος', ἐν τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ τῶν Ἑλλήνων Πατέρων καί Ἐκκλησιαστικῶν συγγραφέων μέχρι καί τῶν Καππαδοκῶν [The Meaning of the Terms 'Theology', 'to Theologize' and 'Theologian' in the Teaching of the Greek Fathers up to and Including the Cappadocians] (in Greek). Athens. pp. 187.
. p. 278:
Gregory of Nazianzus uses the word in this sense in his 4th-century Theological OrationsArchived 7 August 2006 at the Wayback Machine. After his death, he was called "the Theologian" at the Council of Chalcedon and thereafter in Eastern Orthodoxy either because his Orations were seen as crucial examples of this kind of theology or in the sense that he was (like the author of the Book of Revelation) seen as one who was an inspired preacher of the words of God. (It is unlikely to mean, as claimed in the Nicene and Post-Nicene FathersArchived 16 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine introduction to his Theological Orations, that he was a defender of the divinity of Christ the Word.)
^Jones, Alan H. 1983. Independence and Exegesis: The Study of Early Christianity in the Work of Alfred Loisy (1857–1940), Charles Guignebert (1857 [i.e. 1867]–1939), and Maurice Goguel (1880–1955). Mohr Siebeck. p. 194.
^Rashkover, Randi. 1999. "A Call for Jewish Theology." CrossCurrents. "Frequently the claim is made that, unlike Christianity, Judaism is a tradition of deeds and maintains no strict theological tradition. Judaism's fundamental beliefs are inextricable from their halakhic observance (that set of laws revealed to Jews by God), embedded and presupposed by that way of life as it is lived and learned."
^Cabezon, Jose Ignacio. 1999. "Buddhist Theology in the Academy." pp. 25–52 in Buddhist Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars, edited by R. Jackson and J. J. Makransky. London: Routledge.
^King, Anna S. 2006. "For Love of Krishna: Forty Years of Chanting." pp. 134–67 in The Hare Krishna Movement: Forty Years of Chant and Change, edited by G. Dwyer and R. J. Cole. London: I.B. Tauris. p. 163:
Describes developments in both institutions, and speaks of Hare Krishna devotees "studying Vaishnava theology and practice in mainstream universities."
^An earlier date is provided in:
Reagan, Timothy. 2004. Non-Western Educational Traditions: Alternative Approaches to Educational Thought and Practice (3rd ed.).
Lawrence Erlbaum
. p. 185; and
Chitnis, Sunna. 2003. "Higher Education." pp. 1032–56 in The Oxford India Companion to Sociology and Social Anthropology, edited by V. Das. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. p. 1036.
^ abScharfe, Hartmut. 2002. Education in Ancient India. Leiden: Brill.
^Dillon, John. 2003. The Heirs of Plato: A Study in the Old Academy, 347–274 BC. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
^Becker, Adam H. (2006). The Fear of God and the Beginning of Wisdom: The School of Nisibis and the Development of Scholastic Culture in Late Antique Mesopotamia. University of Pennsylvania Press.
^Lulat, Y. G. 2005. A History of African Higher Education from Antiquity to the Present: A Critical Synthesis. Greenwood. p. 71:
The Al-Qarawiyyin mosque was founded in 859 AD, but "While instruction at the mosque must have begun almost from the beginning, it is only...by the end of the tenth-century that its reputation as a center of learning in both religious and secular sciences...must have begun to wax."
^Rüegg, Walter. 2003. "Themes." pp. 3–34 in A History of the University in Europe, edited by W. Rüegg and H. de Ridder-Symoens, (Universities in the Middle Ages 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 15–16.
^Ontology - "In the 13th century, appropriating Aristotle's threefold division of the speculative sciences (physics, mathematics, and what Aquinas variously calls 'first philosophy' or 'metaphysics' or 'theology'), Aquinas argues that primary being and being in general are the subject of the same science (eadem enim est scientia primi entis et entis communis ) inasmuch as primary being (s) are principles of the others (nam prima entia sunt principia aliorum ; cf. Aquinas' In Boeth. de Trin. 5.1, In 10 meta. 6 and 11, and the Proemium to the latter)."
. Retrieved 16 October 2023. [...] Scripture has implications for ontology [...]. [...] the theology we proclaim is deeply intertwined with ontology [...].
^Ontology - "In the sixth book [of the Metaphysics] (1026a16–32), Aristotle refers to a first philosophy that is concerned with being as being, but in contrast to physics and mathematics, precisely as the speculative science of what is separate from matter and motion. First philosophy in this context is labeled 'theology' inasmuch as the divine would only be present in something of this nature, i.e., some immutable being (ousia akinetos)."
^Marsden, George M. 1994. The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 41:
"The primary purpose of Harvard College was, accordingly, the training of clergy.' But 'the school served a dual purpose, training men for other professions as well."
^Curran, Robert Emmett, and Leo J. O'Donovan. 1961. The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University 1789–1889, Part 1. Georgetown: Georgetown University Press:
Georgetown was a Jesuit institution founded in significant part to provide a pool of educated Catholics some of whom who could go on to full seminary training for the priesthood.
^Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. 1916. "The Charter of the Collegiate School, October 1701." In Documentary History of Yale University, Under the Original Charter of the Collegiate School of Connecticut 1701–1745. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press:
Yale's original 1701 charter speaks of the purpose being "Sincere Regard & Zeal for upholding & Propagating of the Christian Protestant Religion by a succession of Learned & Orthodox" and that "Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences (and) through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State."
^At Princeton, one of the founders (probably Ebeneezer Pemberton) wrote in c. 1750, 'Though our great Intention was to erect a seminary for educating Ministers of the Gospel, yet we hope it will be useful in other learned professions – Ornaments of the State as Well as the Church. Therefore we propose to make the plan of Education as extensive as our Circumstances will admit.' Quoted in Alexander Leitch, A Princeton CompanionArchived 26 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine (Princeton University Press, 1978).
^"The CTU Story". Catholic Theological Union. Archived from the original on 7 March 2013. Retrieved 16 March 2013. lay men and women, religious sisters and brothers, and seminarians have studied alongside one another, preparing to serve God's people
^See 'About the GTU'Archived 19 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine at The Graduate Theological Union website (Retrieved 29 August 2009): 'dedicated to educating students for teaching, research, ministry, and service.'
^"The Criswell Vision". Criswell College. Archived from the original on 26 April 2010. Retrieved 29 August 2009. Criswell College exists to serve the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ by developing God-called men and women in the Word (intellectually and academically) and by the Word (professionally and spiritually) for authentic ministry leadership
^"Mission Statement". Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Archived from the original on 29 March 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2009. the mission of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is ... to be a servant of the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention by training, educating, and preparing ministers of the gospel for more faithful service
^"About Trinity Evangelical Divinity School". Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Archived from the original on 30 August 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2009. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) is a learning community dedicated to the development of servant leaders for the global church, leaders who are spiritually, biblically, and theologically prepared to engage contemporary culture for the sake of Christ's kingdom
^"About" at the Dallas Theological Seminary website: "At Dallas, the scholarly study of biblical and related subjects is inseparably fused with the cultivation of the spiritual life. All this is designed to prepare students to communicate the Word of God in the power of the Spirit of God." Retrieved 29 August 2009. Archived 20 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
^"About us". University of Leeds - Department of Theology and Religious Studies. Archived from the original on 5 May 2008.
^See, e.g., Wiebe, Donald. 2000. The Politics of Religious Studies: The Continuing Conflict with Theology in the Academy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
^Ford, David. 2009. "Theology and Religious Studies for a Multifaith and Secular Society." In Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education, edited by D. L. Bird and S. G. Smith. London: Continuum.
^Protagoras. "On the Gods", translated by M. J. O'Brien. In The Older Sophists, edited by R. K. Sprague. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press. 1972. p. 20 (fr.4). (emphasis added).