The Definitive Information to Getting Began

What’s theology?

At its core, theology (as talked about above) is “the examine of God.” The etymology of theology means actually “speech of God” (theo, “God”; logia, “phrases,” “discourse”). Theology is the self-discipline of studying the right way to converse of God in a method most correct to the divine nature—a minimum of, one of the best we will handle. For a lot of church fathers, for instance, poor theology is talking of God or attributing to God what’s “unworthy of God.” For instance, the misunderstanding that God has literal fingers and toes is a results of considering of God as a human, not as God. Our patterns of thought are inclined to anthropomorphize, and this will obscure God’s true nature if we aren’t cautious, and even trigger us to talk falsely of him. Thus attributing human attributes to God, who’s bodiless, is a failure to talk of God in a fashion worthy of God. This makes theology the final word problem for the human thoughts, for it requires us to disrupt and revise our regular classes and habits of thought.

For Christians, theology is inextricably related to Scripture, for the phrases of Scripture are for us one of the best and most correct expression of God. Non-Christians (Plato, as an illustration) can follow theology with out Scripture, however Christian theology correct is inevitably biblical theology—that’s, biblical theology is the muse for all different theologies deserving the identify “Christian.” In his Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Perception, evangelical theologian John Body suggests a definition of theology alongside these traces: “Theology is the applying of Scripture, by individuals, to each space of life.”

Theology have to be biblical, and its objective is deeply tied to the church, to the precise lives of actual Christians. We shouldn’t contain ourselves in theology merely to grasp biblical rules and debate doctrines. Theology adjustments how we see the world and the way we stay. James tells us to be doers of the phrase, not simply hearers (1:22). Once we maintain the native church and its wants in thoughts as we examine and talk theology, we assist the Christian physique to develop in Christlikeness and fulfill its Nice Fee duties.

Forms of theology

There are 4 varieties of theology we’ll cowl on this article:

• Pure Theology
• Historic Theology
• Systematic Theology
• Biblical Theology

Paul describes this in Romans 1:20: “For his invisible attributes, that’s, his everlasting energy and divine nature, have been clearly seen for the reason that creation of the world, being understood via what he has made. Consequently, persons are with out excuse” (CSB).

In Dictionary of Theological Phrases, Alan Cairns defines pure theology as, “The science which on the rules of human cause and conscience, contemplating the evidences of God’s works in creation and windfall, seeks to assemble a scientific data of God—i.e., it seeks to determine (1) Is there a God? (2) What’s his nature? (3) In what relation does he stand to man?” Pure theology consists of all of the methods we will find out about God outdoors his particular revelation via the Bible.

ADVERTISEMENT

Whereas most theologians have accepted that sure truths about God’s existence, energy, and character may be obtained via pure theology (because the psalmist tells us in 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his arms”), most theologians have additionally understood there are limitations to this strategy. Sure different truths of God, akin to the truth that he’s triune, stay inaccessible via pure theology, however require a particular revelation on God’s half.

Not solely is nature restricted in what it could inform us about God, however the human mind is usually too frail to grasp or rightly interpret what nature can inform. For instance, in response to the Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Custom, John Calvin believed that “people have an consciousness of God (sensus divinitatis) and encounter a few of his attributes in nature, however sinful minds inevitably distort this consciousness and forestall saving data.”

Historic theology

Historic theology represents the wedding of theology and church historical past. The self-discipline focuses on the event of theological doctrines all through greater than two thousand years of church historical past. A. C. Thiselton writes within the Thiselton Companion to Christian Theology: “Theology isn’t purely summary. It solutions questions that come up from a collection of particular contexts and occasions.” Historic theology doesn’t deal with the folks or the occasions of church historical past however the concepts that sprung from these occasions and the way they developed over time.

Whereas the event of those historic doctrines of the Christian church by no means trumps biblical revelation, they do guarantee we’re deciphering Scripture inside the bounds of orthodoxy. We acknowledge that we examine the Bible and stay out its rules surrounded by a “nice cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1) and that we aren’t the one ones whom Christ’s Spirit guides “into all fact” (John 16:13).

Historic theology is usually divided into subsets relying upon the period. Anglican theologian Alister McGrath describes 4 such eras in his ebook Historic Theology: the Patristic, Medieval, Reformation, and Trendy. All main doctrines of the Christian religion present improvement and refinement all through these 4 eras.

Systematic theology

The systematic strategy research the whole scope of the Bible by all the things Scripture teaches a few explicit matter or situation and describes the biblical and historic improvement of the theological doctrines. In keeping with the Lexham Bible Dictionary, it’s “an strategy to the Bible that seeks to attract biblical teachings and themes right into a self-consistent, coherent entire, in dialog with the historical past of Christian theological reflection and modern points confronting the church.”

Due to the frequent dependence upon systematic theology to develop Christian creeds and doctrinal statements, it’s a well-liked strategy to theology that has led to a few of probably the most vital theological works in church historical past, together with Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Dogmatics, John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Faith, and Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics.

At occasions, systematic theologians have wanted to defend their self-discipline from different theologians who accuse them of bending Scripture to squeeze doctrine into synthetic theological methods. At its finest, although, systematic theologians assist the church to talk authoritatively and biblically on particular matters of consequence.

Biblical theology

As described within the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, biblical theology is the “dialogue of what the Bible itself teaches about God and his dealings with human beings and the remainder of creation.” Biblical theology gives the muse for pure, systematic, and historic theology as a result of it represents the exegetical work required for all theological examine.

Though believers have developed biblical theology for so long as the Bible has existed, it turned a separate discipline of examine within the eighteenth century in response in opposition to dogmatic (or systematic) theology. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church defines 5 typical traits of biblical theology:

1. Biblical ideas take desire over all others.
2. Biblical ideas are adequate for all “important functions.”
3. God’s work in historical past is the first medium of revelation.
4. It emphasizes the “interior coherence of the biblical materials.”
5. It tends towards a conservative perspective concerning the historic integrity of Scripture.

Whereas many theologians via the ages have impacted the event of the church’s doctrinal teachings, sure figures have performed an outsized position. It’s onerous to slender probably the most influential theologians to a quick listing. Most theologians exert affect over a single theological custom or denomination. Others have impacted all (or most of) the church. The next listing shouldn’t be exhaustive, however it names among the pivotal gamers that can assist you get began.

Paul

It’s unimaginable to overstate the affect of the apostle Paul on the theological improvement of the church. Not solely did he write a big portion of the New Testomony, however his letters have been the doctrinal heart of the key theological works of the previous two thousand years. Not solely did Paul do theology, however within the early church he was thought-about the mannequin theologian for all different theologians.

Born Saul of Tarsus (on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey), Paul discovered Judaism underneath the instructing of the influential Jewish chief Gamaliel. The passionate persecutor of the early church transformed to Christianity after encountering a risen Jesus on the highway to Damascus as described in Acts 9. He turned one of the crucial proficient missionaries in church historical past, touring all through the recognized world to share the gospel. His letters to the church buildings he began turned the idea for a lot of the New Testomony. Though the letters had been written to handle particular points inside the church buildings, the rules he taught have formed the church’s teachings on quite a few matters. 

The Lexham Bible Dictionary describes the ebook of Romans because the “textual content that finest resembles a totally voiced theological manifesto.” It’s additionally possible his most debated letter. In it, Paul addresses his theological views on salvation, religion, sin and judgment, the legislation, and extra. 

Origen of Alexandria

Origen has a blended reception in Christian historical past, to understate the matter. Although teachings connected to his identify can be condemned as heresy after his loss of life, there’s no denying Origen has profoundly influenced Christianity. Many nice theologians of the church, together with Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, and Ambrose of Milan (the mentor of Augustine) categorical their respect and gratitude for his teachings. On this respect, it’s comprehensible why Origen provokes a lot controversy: he’s exactly the form of determine we can’t ignore, whether or not we like him or not.

Origen was one of the crucial prolific authors of the traditional world, however his most well-known work is On First Ideas. This can be a preparatory textual content for pastoral exegesis, however it has additionally been known as the church’s very first systematic theology. There he articulates the doctrine of the everlasting technology of the Son from the Father, which might be indispensable for the Nicene formulation of the Trinity. Origen boasts many different “firsts” for the church. For instance, his just lately found Homilies on the Psalms is the primary exegetical remedy of that ebook by a Christian.

Athanasius of Alexandria

This fourth-century bishop of Alexandria attended the Nicene Council (325) and was among the many authors and defenders of the Nicene Creed. His principal antagonist was Arianism, a Christian heresy which denied that divinity of the Son of God by arguing that the Son was not co-eternal with the Father however was sooner or later created.

Athanasius’s most well-known ebook, On the Incarnation, is a real Christian basic as accessible as it’s deep. On this work, Athanasius explores how the incarnation of the Son results out salvation. The foundation thesis is anti-Arian: Athanasius demonstrates that if we’re to be saved, our Savior and our Creator have to be the identical particular person.

For his anti-Arian views, Athanasius spent a few years in exile with the monks of the Egyptian desert. There he met Antony the Nice and the 2 turned quick buddies. Shortly after Antony died, Athanasius wrote The Lifetime of Antony, which introduced a mannequin of Christian religious self-discipline based mostly on the nice monk’s life and teachings. This little work would develop into one of the crucial influential writings of the early and medieval durations. In truth, it might play a significant half within the conversion of Augustine of Hippo.

Augustine of Hippo

The famed bishop of Hippo is probably the most influential patristic theologian within the Latin-speaking West. Born in North Africa to a pagan father and a religious Christian mom, Augustine’s early examine was in rhetoric, a key technique to advance in public administration, in response to The Westminster Dictionary of Theologians. His early examine led him to embrace Manichaeism—a dualistic non secular system with parts of Gnosticism, Christianity, and paganism—however after a dramatic expertise within the Backyard of Milan AD 386, he transformed to Christianity.

Augustine would train his mental and rhetorical abilities to take care of the Donatist and Pelagian controversies. His main theological works embody The Metropolis of God, On the Trinity, and On Christian Doctrine.

Augustine is the daddy of Augustinianism, which The Pocket Dictionary of Theological Phrases defines as: “A system of thought [that] basically begins with the whole sinfulness of humankind (depravity), which leaves people unable to reply in religion towards God.” Whereas Augustinianism considerably impacted the event of medieval theology, it additionally influenced lots of the reformers of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe (significantly Martin Luther and John Calvin).

Augustinian theology is usually contrasted with Pelagianism, the teachings of Augustine’s contemporaneous rival who believed folks had been “able to avoiding sin and selecting to stay righteous lives even aside from God’s grace,” in response to The Lexham Bible Dictionary. It’s a battle Augustine clearly gained. Many of the Christian church considers Pelagianism heretical in the present day.

Gregory of Nazianzus

Gregory was one of many Nice Cappadocians, a set of 4 academics of the church comprised of Gregory, his good good friend Basil of Caesarea, Basil’s brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their sister Macrina the Youthful. These 4 every made main contributions to orthodox theology, however since this text is about the right way to start, you may’t do a lot better than Gregory of Nazianzus.

Broadly thought-about one of the crucial educated and expert theologians of the patristic period, Gregory was Archbishop of Constantinople within the fourth century. He’s extensively thought-about probably the most completed rhetorical stylist of the patristic age. He’s finest recognized for his 5 Theological Orations—a piece that earned him the title “the Theologian” within the Orthodox custom. (A terrific honor: the one different Christian author to share this title is the writer of the Gospel of John!) This work stays a normal of Trinitarian theology and no theological schooling is full with out it.

Thomas Aquinas

Aquinas taught within the thirteenth century. At the moment, he is called “The Angelic Physician,” however in his personal day his college college students nicknamed him “The Dumb Ox” for his heavy measurement and sluggish, quiet method of talking.

Unappreciated in his personal time, Pope Leo XIII in 1879 proclaimed that Thomism was a “definitive exposition of Catholic doctrine.” The Roman Catholic Church would finally require Catholic academics of philosophy and faith to observe the strategies of Aquinas within the Code of Canon Legislation (1917)—successfully establishing Thomism because the official philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church/

Two centuries earlier than Aquinas started instructing, the writings of Aristotle had returned to the West and introduced into query many elements of the church’s teachings. A philosophical–theological methodology emerged predicated upon Aristotle’s ten classes. Although this methodology, known as Scholasticism, had many early practitioners akin to Anselm of Canterbury (eleventh cent.), Aquinas’s Summa Theologica is taken into account the head of Scholasticism.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther often is the West’s most influential single particular person since New Testomony occasions. Initially an Augustinian monk, Luther first adopted the theological perception of nominalism, which provides man a selected however restricted position in his personal justification. However a life-altering encounter with the reality of Romans 1:17 and Paul’s treatise on the righteousness of God set Luther’s theology on a brand new monitor that will have monumental penalties for Christendom. As The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church says of Luther, “He got here to imagine that man is unable to reply to God with out divine grace, and that man may be justified solely via religion (per solam fidem), by the deserves of Christ imputed to him: works or non secular observance are irrelevant.”

In October 1517, Luther famously nailed ninety-five theses on indulgences on the door of the Wittenberg Church, which set him on a collision course in opposition to Pope Leo X and the sixteenth-century Roman Catholic Church. Over the following three a long time, Luther’s doctrinal exposition (alongside along with his collaborator Philip Melanchthon) not solely rocked the Christian church however the entirety of the Western world. He’s extensively credited because the founding father of what turned the Protestant Reformation, forming the third main department of Christianity (together with Roman Catholicism and Japanese Orthodoxy).

Amongst Luther’s most essential books (by Luther’s personal appraisal) are The Bondage of the Will, his Catechism, and his commentaries on Galatians and John 14–16.

Luther’s theological legacy is usually known as Lutheranism. In keeping with The Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Custom, “Whereas Lutheranism holds to the solas of the Reformation (sola fide, sola gratia, sola scriptura, soli deo gloria, solus Christus), it traditionally differs from Calvinism in such areas as its view of the consubstantiation of Christ’s physique and blood within the Lord’s Supper, the ubiquity of Christ’s humanity in opposition to further calvinisticum, and the distinctive separation of legislation and gospel.” 
The New Dictionary of Theology describes soteriology (the theology of human salvation) and the authority of God’s Phrase as probably the most influential doctrines of Lutheran theology.

Key theological questions for every doctrinal matter

Though numerous theological streams inside the church outline their beliefs otherwise, most will agree on the boundaries of the eight to 10 main doctrines of the Christian religion. Many of those matters are outlined within the nice creeds of early Christianity. Whereas there’s vital settlement round these matters, orthodox Christians even have numerous responses to lots of the questions beneath.

Revelation

All vital theological reflection begins with a readability round how we come to know fact. Lots of the nice questions we’ve round God focus on our view of revelation.

Below this broad theological matter are questions that relate to how God communicates with humanity, together with:

• How can we achieve data about God?
• What’s fact and the way can we all know it?
• How does God reveal himself to humanity?
• What’s the mode of biblical inspiration?
• How did God use people within the course of of making biblical texts?
• How does God intend us to grasp the Bible?
• How ought to we perceive the scientific, historic, and theological truthfulness of Scripture?
• What’s the place of the Bible inside Christian discipleship?

God

Simply because the biblical story begins with the inventive acts of God in Genesis 1 and a couple of, the theological story the Bible facilities on who God is and the way he relates with humanity.

Questions on who God is have remained among the most essential in all of Christian theology:

Jesus

The central determine of Christian historical past is the Second Particular person of the Trinity—Jesus. For 2 thousand years, theologians have debated who Jesus is, why he mattered, and why he continues to matter in the present day.

A very powerful theological questions surrounding Jesus are:

• How ought to we perceive the divinity and humanity of Jesus?
• In what method did Jesus exist earlier than coming to earth?
• How ought to we perceive the incarnation of Jesus?
• What was the that means of Jesus’s life, loss of life, and resurrection?
• What did the loss of life of Jesus imply for the unique readers of the New Testomony, and what does it imply for us in the present day?
• In what methods did his loss of life atone for human sin?
• What was the character of Jesus’s resurrection, and what does it imply for us in the present day?

The Holy Spirit

Of the three individuals of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit has possible been probably the most uncared for in theological examine all through church historical past. At the moment, with extra consideration on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, it’s one of the crucial hotly debated and divisive within the church.

You’ll discover broad settlement on a few of these questions but additionally vital variations:

Humanity

People have lengthy questioned how they got here to exist, why they exist, their objective, and the character of the obstacles that stop them from attaining their objective.

Whereas these points had been debated lengthy earlier than Christian historical past started, they’ve been among the many most hotly mentioned in church historical past as effectively. These questions embody:

• What’s the objective of humanity?
• What’s sin and the way does it affect people?
• Why did God create people each female and male, and are their roles supposed to be the identical or complementary?

Salvation

Due to the everlasting penalties of theological dialogue round salvation, the doctrine of salvation is especially disputed within the modern church. The doctrine of salvation incorporates among the widest areas of disagreement amongst orthodox Christians. A few of the most essential questions on this doctrine are:

• Why do people want salvation?
• How did Jesus’s work on the cross present for human salvation?
• What’s the gospel?
• What’s election, and when does it occur?
• What’s the order of salvation?
• What’s the nature of the afterlife, and what determines the expertise of the afterlife for humanity?
• What, if any, is the human position in salvation?

Church

Most divisions inside church historical past have resulted from disagreements on ecclesiology (the theological examine of the church). Subsequently, the doctrine of the church has traditionally been one of the crucial essential theological matters. Moreover, with the approaching of the digital age and the church’s response to Western cultural adjustments of the previous half century, new points in ecclesiology have emerged.

A few of the most essential questions for the church all through the years have been:

Final issues

Traditionally, the doctrine of final issues (or as others name it, the doctrine of Christian hope or eschatology) has had elevated curiosity in durations of persecution and/or cultural estrangement. In recent times, significantly amongst evangelical Christians, popular-level books and movies have helped to spur on discussions about these matters.

Vital questions round this doctrine embody:

• What’s the Christian theology of time (linear vs. cyclical)?
• How ought to Christians perceive the literalness of the biblical description of end-time occasions?
• When and the way will Christ return?
• What’s the millennial reign of Christ, and the way will/does the church relate to it?

Use Logos’s Factbook to check theological matters like eschatology.

4 steps to creating theological convictions

1. Pray

The follow of creating theological convictions isn’t primarily a tutorial train—it’s a religious one. Fact—the sort of fact that adjustments lives—comes from God and him alone. John the Baptist understood this when he mentioned: “Nobody can obtain something except it has been given to him from heaven” (John 3:27 CSB).

Invite God into your theological reflection from the beginning. Let him know you need to know him. That’s why you’re finding out theology. Ask him to open your thoughts and your coronary heart to fact from his Phrase.

2. Search Scripture

After speaking to God about your theological examine and dedicating it to him, search the Bible. God’s Phrase doesn’t simply inform our theological convictions. It’s the idea for them. All we all know concerning the doctrines of Christianity circulation from Scripture.

As you attempt to perceive what the Bible says a few particular matter, you’ll need to take a “verse-with-verse” strategy that appears all through Scripture to see what it says concerning the matter. At a primary degree, a concordance may be an effective way to start out. A typical concordance will manage biblical verses by topic. Take the subject you’re going to check and lookup a wide range of verses on it and different associated topics. For instance, in case you’re going to check the subject of election, you may examine what the Bible says about election, salvation, predestination, and many others. Often you’ll need to have a look at cases the place the phrases are utilized in numerous components of speech (verbs, nouns, and many others.).

However one of many benefits of finding out theology within the twenty-first century is the flexibility to make use of digital instruments to amplify your biblical analysis. Functions like Logos provides you a chance to not solely search the total swath of Scripture in a number of faucets however so as to add a number of digital instruments to your Bible examine. With Logos, you may examine a passage in its unique language (even with a restricted language background), discover associated verses, and even see how others interpret the passage in simply a few clicks.

3. Take a look at historical past

Whereas biblical analysis is at all times your start line, involving the reflection of theologians from the previous helps to make sure you’re staying inside theological orthodoxy.

For 2 thousand years, Christian theologians have studied and debated what Scripture teaches on essential doctrines. You’ll not uncover something that’s biblical and new to the church. Chances are you’ll apply Scripture to new issues, however you’ll by no means uncover new theology.

That’s why it’s important to see what church leaders have mentioned previously about matters you’re finding out. Don’t simply have a look at one period of church historical past both. It’s essential to have a look at theologians from the Patristic, Medieval, Reformational, and the Trendy eras of church historical past.

That is one other space the place digital instruments come in useful. With the Logos Bible Examine Platform, you may search theological sources for matters in a number of easy clicks. It’s also possible to lean on the Logos Factbook, utilizing its theological lens, to analysis matters in all your sources. With Factbook, you may simply transfer between numerous theologies and evaluate views of theologians throughout totally different denominations.

4. Write it down

Writing down your theological convictions has a number of benefits. First, it permits you to clearly synthesize your ideas. Documenting your doctrinal convictions forces you to maintain a constant and dependable argument as you describe your beliefs.

Writing your theology additionally helps you share it. Whereas it’s essential to check theology on your personal religious development, in the end you need to assist others to be taught extra about God via your reflection. Even when your plan is to share it orally (via a sermon, lecture, or speech), a well-written doctrinal description will make it easier to achieve this. Chances are you’ll even need to distribute your theological reflection via a ebook, weblog collection, article, or another public method.

We’re all theologians

Each believer all through the ages who has ever cracked open a Bible is a theologian. As we learn the Phrase to find extra about God and the way he’s at work on the earth, we’re most assuredly “doing theology.”

However diving into the Bible is just the start of doing theology. When Paul described to younger Timothy the objective of the Bible in 2 Timothy 3:16–17, he mentioned: “All Scripture is impressed by God, and is worthwhile for instructing, for rebuking, for correcting, for coaching in righteousness, in order that the person of God could also be full, geared up for each good work” (CSB). We examine what the Scriptures say about God in order that we’d know God and do his work on the earth. As theologian Sam Storms as soon as mentioned: “The objective of theology isn’t data however worship.”

Extra sources about theology

Assets that can assist you examine theology

Dig into theological sources that can assist you perceive and talk doctrine successfully.

Associated articles