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Theology

Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries.[1] It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural, but also deals with religious epistemology, asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God, gods, or deities, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and, in particular, to reveal themselves to humankind. While theology has turned into a secular field[according to whom?], religious adherents still consider theology to be a discipline that helps them live and understand concepts such as life and love and that helps them lead lives of obedience to the deities they follow or worship.

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,[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]

Etymology

The term derives from the Greek theologia (θεολογία), a combination of theos (Θεός, 'god') and logia (λογία, 'utterances, sayings, oracles')—the latter word relating to Greek logos (λόγος, 'word, discourse, account, reasoning').[9][10] 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 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.

 
Plato (left) and Aristotle in Raphael's 1509 fresco The School of Athens

Classical philosophy

Greek theologia (θεολογία) was used with the meaning 'discourse on God' around 380 BC by Plato in 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, Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of such discourse:[14]

  1. mythical, concerning the myths of the Greek gods;
  2. rational, philosophical analysis of the gods and of cosmology; and
  3. 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]

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 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).[20]

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.

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 14th century,[21] 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.[22]

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)[23] 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."[24][25]

In religion

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 (i.e., religions without a single deity, or that deny that such subjects can be studied logically). Hierology has been proposed, by such people as Eugène Goblet d'Alviella (1908), as an alternative, more generic term.[26]

Abrahamic religions

Christianity

 
Thomas Aquinas, an influential Roman Catholic theologian

As defined by Thomas Aquinas, theology is constituted by a triple aspect: what is taught by God, teaches of God and leads to God (Latin: Theologia a Deo docetur, Deum docet, et ad Deum ducit).[27] This indicates the three distinct areas of God as theophanic revelation, the systematic study of the nature of divine and, more generally, of religious belief, and the 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.

Islam

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.[28]

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

Judaism

 
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, including through rabbinical discussion of 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]

Hinduism

Within Hindu philosophy, there is a tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the universe, of God (termed Brahman, Paramatma, and/or Bhagavan in some schools of Hindu thought) and of the ātman (soul). The Sanskrit word for the various schools of Hindu philosophy is darśana ('view, 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.[32]

Other religions

Shinto

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

Richard Hooker defines theology as "the science of things divine."[34] The term can, however, be used for a variety of disciplines or fields of study.[35] Theology considers whether the divine exists in some form, such as in physical, supernatural, mental, or social realities, and what 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’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:

The earliest universities were developed under the aegis of the Latin Church by papal bull as studia generalia and perhaps from cathedral schools. It is possible, however, that the development of cathedral schools into universities was quite rare, with the University of Paris being an exception.[44] Later they were also founded by Kings (University of Naples Federico II, Charles University in Prague, Jagiellonian University in Kraków) or municipal administrations (University of Cologne, University of Erfurt).

In the early medieval period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools, usually when these schools were deemed to have become primarily sites of higher education. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries.[45] Christian theological learning was, therefore, a 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.[46] 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.[47]

During the High Middle Ages, theology was the ultimate subject at universities, being named "The Queen of the Sciences" and 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]

Christian theology's preeminent place in the university began to be challenged during the European Enlightenment, especially in Germany.[49] 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.[50]

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.[49][51][52][53]

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.[54][49]: 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."[55]

In the United States, several prominent colleges and universities were started in order to train Christian ministers. Harvard,[56] Georgetown,[57] Boston University, Yale,[58] Duke University,[59] and Princeton[60] 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 examples in the United States, including Phoenix Seminary, Catholic Theological Union in Chicago,[61] The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,[62] Criswell College in Dallas,[63] The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,[64] Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois,[65] Dallas Theological Seminary,[66] North Texas Collegiate Institute in Farmers Branch, Texas,[67] and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri. The only Judeo-Christian seminary for theology is the ‘Idaho Messianic Bible Seminary’ which is part of the Jewish University of Colorado in Denver.[68]

As an academic discipline in its own right

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.[69] 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.[70] 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,[71] and at other times, they are held to coexist without serious tension.[72] Occasionally it is denied that there is as clear a boundary between them.[73]

Criticism

Pre-20th century

Whether or not reasoned discussion about the divine is possible has long been a point of contention. Protagoras, as early as the fifth century 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."[74][75]

 
Baron d’Holbach

Since at least the eighteenth century, various authors have criticized the suitability of theology as an academic discipline.[76] In 1772, Baron d'Holbach labeled theology "a continual insult to human reason" in Le Bon sens.[76] Lord Bolingbroke, an English politician and political philosopher, wrote in Section IV of his Essays on Human Knowledge, "Theology is in fault not religion. Theology is a science that may justly be compared to the Box of Pandora. Many good things lie uppermost in it; but many evil lie under them, and scatter plagues and desolation throughout the world."[77]

Thomas Paine, a Deistic American political theorist and pamphleteer, wrote in his three-part work The Age of Reason (1794, 1795, 1807):[78]

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."[79] 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."[80] 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:[81][82]

[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."[83]

Jewish atheist philosopher Walter Kaufmann, in his essay "Against Theology", sought to differentiate theology from religion in general:[84]

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."[84]

English atheist Charles Bradlaugh believed theology prevented human beings from achieving liberty,[85] 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.[86] 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.[87]

The British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has been an outspoken critic of theology.[76][88] In an article published in The Independent in 1993, he severely criticizes theology as entirely useless,[88] declaring that it has completely and repeatedly failed to answer any questions about the nature of reality or the human condition.[88] 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."[88] He then states that, if all theology were completely eradicated from the earth, no one would notice or even care. He concludes:[88]

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 also

References

  1. ^ "theology". Wordnetweb.princeton.edu. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  2. ^ See, e.g., Migliore, Daniel L. 2004. Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology (2nd ed.) Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
  3. ^ See, e.g., Kogan, Michael S. 1995."." Journal of Ecumenical Studies 32(1):89–106. Archived from the online on 15 June 2006.
  4. ^ See, e.g., Dormor, Duncan, et al., eds. 2003. Anglicanism, the Answer to Modernity. London: Continuum.
  5. ^ See, e.g., Spong, John Shelby. 2001. Why Christianity Must Change or Die. New York: Harper Collins.
  6. ^ See, e.g., Burrell, David. 1994. Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
  7. ^ See, e.g., Gorringe, Timothy. 2004. Crime, (Changing Society and the Churches Series). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
  8. ^ 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 Ramanuja, (Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions 2). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-38516-4, ISBN 978-0-521-38516-9. Retrieved 5 April 2010. p. 4.
  9. ^ The accusative plural of the neuter noun λόγιον; cf. Bauer, Walter, William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, and Frederick W. Danker. 1979. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 476. For examples of λόγια in the New Testament, cf. Acts 7:38; Romans 3:2; 1 Peter 4:11.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ Langland, Piers Plowman A ix 136
  12. ^ Adam, James. 1902. The Republic of Plato 2.360C. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
  13. ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book Epsilon. 16 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ a b Augustine, City of God VI, ch. 5.
  15. ^ Tertullian, Ad Nationes II, ch. 1.
  16. ^ Augustine of Hippo. City of God Book VIII. i.. 4 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine: "de divinitate rationem sive sermonem."
  17. ^ "Boethius, On the Holy Trinity" (PDF). Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  18. ^ Evans, G. R. 1980. Old Arts and New Theology: The Beginnings of Theology as an Academic Discipline. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 31–32.
  19. ^ McGukin, John. 2001. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. p. 278: Gregory of Nazianzus uses the word in this sense in his fourth-century Theological Orations; 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 Fathers introduction to his Theological Orations, that he was a defender of the divinity of Christ the Word.)
  20. ^ See the title of Peter Abelard's Theologia Christiana; and, perhaps most famously, of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica
  21. ^ "Theology." Oxford English Dictionary. note.
  22. ^ See, e.g., Hodge, Charles. 1871. Systematic Theology 1, part 1.
  23. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, sense 1
  24. ^ "Theology, 1(d)" and "Theological, A.3." Oxford English Dictionary. 1989.
  25. ^ Times Literary Supplement 329/4. 5 June 1959: "The 'theological' approach to Soviet Marxism...proves in the long run unsatisfactory."
  26. ^ 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.
  27. ^ Kapic, Kelly M. Kapic (2012). A Little Book for New Theologians. Why and How to Study Theology. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-830-86670-0.
  28. ^ Gardet, L. 1999. "Ilm al-kalam." The Encyclopedia of Islam, edited by P. J. Bearman, et al. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV.
  29. ^ Libenson, Dan and Lex Rofeberg, hosts. 5 October 2018. "God and Gender - Rachel Adler." Ep. 138 in Judaism Unbound (podcast).
  30. ^ 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."
  31. ^ 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.
  32. ^ 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."
  33. ^ Harvey, Graham (2007). Listening People, Speaking Earth: Contemporary Paganism (2nd ed.). London: Hurst & Company. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-85065-272-4.
  34. ^ "Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, 3.8.11" (PDF). Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  35. ^ McGrath, Alister. 1998. Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. pp. 1–8.
  36. ^ 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.
  37. ^ a b Scharfe, Hartmut. 2002. Education in Ancient India. Leiden: Brill.
  38. ^ Dillon, John. 2003. The Heirs of Plato: A Study in the Old Academy, 347–274 BC. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  39. ^ Yao, Xinzhong. 2000. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 50.
  40. ^ 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.
  41. ^ . Nestorian.org. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
  42. ^ 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."
  43. ^ Beattie, Andrew. 2005. Cairo: A Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 101.
  44. ^ Leff, Gordon. 1968. Paris and Oxford Universities in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. An Institutional and Intellectual History. Wiley.
  45. ^ Johnson, Paul. 2000. The Renaissance: A Short History, (Modern Library Chronicles). New York: Modern Library. p. 9.
  46. ^ 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.
  47. ^ See D'Costa, Gavin. 2005. Theology in the Public Square: Church, Academy and Nation. Oxford: Blackwell. ch. 1.
  48. ^ Howard, Thomas Albert. 2006. Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 56: "philosophy, the scientia scientarum in one sense, was, in another, portrayed as the humble "handmaid of theology'."
  49. ^ a b c Howard, Thomas Albert. 2006. Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  50. ^ See the discussion of, for instance, Immanuel Kant's Conflict of the Faculties (1798), and J.G. Fichte's Deduzierter Plan einer zu Berlin errichtenden höheren Lehranstalt (1807) in Howard, Thomas Albert. 2006. Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  51. ^ Frei, Hans W. 1992. Types of Christian Theology, edited by W. C. Placher and G. Hunsinger. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
  52. ^ D'Costa, Gavin. 2005. Theology in the Public Square: Church, Academy and Nation. Oxford: Blackwell.
  53. ^ McClendon, James W. 2000. "Theology and the University." Ch. 10 in Systematic Theology 3: Witness. Nashville, TN: Abingdon.
  54. ^ Schleiermacher, Friedrich. [] 1990. Brief Outline of Theology as a Field of Study (2nd ed.), translated by T. N. Tice. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen.
  55. ^ Kratz, Reinhard G. 2002. "Academic Theology in Germany." Religion 32(2):113–16.
  56. ^ 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."
  57. ^ 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.
  58. ^ 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."
  59. ^ Duke University Libraries (11 July 2013). "Duke University: A Brief Narrative History". Duke University Libraries. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  60. ^ 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 Companion 26 August 2015 at the Wayback Machine (Princeton University Press, 1978).
  61. ^ . 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
  62. ^ See 'About the GTU' at The Graduate Theological Union website (Retrieved 29 August 2009): 'dedicated to educating students for teaching, research, ministry, and service.'
  63. ^ . 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
  64. ^ . 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
  65. ^ . 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
  66. ^ See 'About DTS' at the Dallas Theological Seminary website (Retrieved 29 August 2009): '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.'
  67. ^ ".::North Texas Collegiate Institute ::". .::North Texas Collegiate Institute ::.
  68. ^ "Jewish University of Colorado". Jewish University of Colorado.
  69. ^ See the 'Why Study Theology?' 9 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine page at the University of Exeter (Retrieved 1 September 2009), and the 'About us' page at the University of Leeds.
  70. ^ See, e.g., Wiebe, Donald. 2000. The Politics of Religious Studies: The Continuing Conflict with Theology in the Academy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  71. ^ Noll, K. L. 27 July 2009. "The Ethics of Being a Theologian." Chronicle of Higher Education.
  72. ^ 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.
  73. ^ Fitzgerald, Timothy. 2000. The Ideology of Religious Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  74. ^ 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).
  75. ^ Poster, Carol. "Protagoras (fl. 5th C. BCE)." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 6 October 2008.
  76. ^ a b c Loughlin, Gerard (2009). "11- Theology in the university". In Ker, John; Merrigan, Terrance (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp. 221–240. doi:10.1017/CCOL9780521871860.011. ISBN 9780521871860.
  77. ^ The Philosophical Works of Lord Bolingbroke 3. p. 396.
  78. ^ Paine, Thomas. [1794/1795/1807] 1945. "The Age of Reason." The Life and Major Writings of Thomas Paine, edited by P. S. Foner. New York: Citadel Press. p. 601.
  79. ^ Feuerbach, Ludwig. [] 1986. Principles of the Philosophy of the Future, translated by M. H. Vogel. Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company. p. 5.
  80. ^ Feuerbach, Ludwig. [1841] 1989. "Preface, XVI." The Essence of Christianity, translated G. Eliot. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books.
  81. ^ Twain, Mark (1896). "The Lowest Animal". thoughtco.com.
  82. ^ "Directory of Mark Twain's maxims, quotations, and various opinions". Twainquotes.com. 28 November 1902. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
  83. ^ Ayer, A. J., 1936. Language, Truth and Logic. New York: Dover Publications. pp. 114–15.
  84. ^ a b Kaufmann, Walter. 1963. The Faith of a Heretic. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books. pp. 114, 127–28, 130.
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  88. ^ a b c d e Dawkin, Richard (20 March 1993). "Letter: Scientific versus theological knowledge". The Independent. Archived from the original on 7 May 2022.

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theology, confused, with, religious, studies, this, article, about, theology, science, sinéad, connor, album, album, systematic, study, nature, divine, more, broadly, religious, belief, taught, academic, discipline, typically, universities, seminaries, occupie. Not to be confused with Religious studies This article is about theology as a science For Sinead O Connor s album see Theology album Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and more broadly of religious belief It is taught as an academic discipline typically in universities and seminaries 1 It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural but also deals with religious epistemology asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God gods or deities as not only transcendent or above the natural world but also willing and able to interact with the natural world and in particular to reveal themselves to humankind While theology has turned into a secular field according to whom religious adherents still consider theology to be a discipline that helps them live and understand concepts such as life and love and that helps them lead lives of obedience to the deities they follow or worship 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 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 Contents 1 Etymology 1 1 Classical philosophy 1 2 Later usage 2 In religion 2 1 Abrahamic religions 2 1 1 Christianity 2 1 2 Islam 2 1 3 Judaism 2 2 Indian religions 2 2 1 Buddhism 2 2 2 Hinduism 2 3 Other religions 2 3 1 Shinto 2 3 2 Modern Paganism 3 Topics 4 History of academic discipline 4 1 Ministerial training 4 2 As an academic discipline in its own right 4 3 Religious studies 5 Criticism 5 1 Pre 20th century 5 2 20th and 21st centuries 6 See also 7 References 8 External linksEtymology EditMain article History of theology The term derives from the Greek theologia 8eologia a combination of theos 8eos god and logia logia utterances sayings oracles the latter word relating to Greek logos logos word discourse account reasoning 9 10 The term would pass on to Latin as theologia then French as theologie 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 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 Plato left and Aristotle in Raphael s 1509 fresco The School of Athens Classical philosophy Edit Greek theologia 8eologia was used with the meaning discourse on God around 380 BC by Plato in 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 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 Edit 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 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 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 20 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 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 14th century 21 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 22 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 23 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 24 25 In religion EditThe 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 i e religions without a single deity or that deny that such subjects can be studied logically Hierology has been proposed by such people as Eugene Goblet d Alviella 1908 as an alternative more generic term 26 Abrahamic religions Edit Christianity Edit Main articles Christian theology and Neoplatonism Further information Diversity in early Christian theology Great Apostasy Nontrinitarianism Son of God Christianity and Trinity Thomas Aquinas an influential Roman Catholic theologian As defined by Thomas Aquinas theology is constituted by a triple aspect what is taught by God teaches of God and leads to God Latin Theologia a Deo docetur Deum docet et ad Deum ducit 27 This indicates the three distinct areas of God as theophanic revelation the systematic study of the nature of divine and more generally of religious belief and the 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 Islam Edit Main article Aqidah Further information Kalam List of Muslim theologians and Schools of Islamic theology 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 28 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 Judaism Edit Sculpture of the Jewish theologian Maimonides 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 synagogue including through rabbinical discussion of 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 Edit Buddhism Edit 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 Hinduism Edit See also Krishnology Within Hindu philosophy there is a tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the universe of God termed Brahman Paramatma and or Bhagavan in some schools of Hindu thought and of the atman soul The Sanskrit word for the various schools of Hindu philosophy is darsana view 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 32 Other religions Edit Shinto Edit 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 shugaku 宗学 denominational studies Modern Paganism Edit 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 EditFurther information Outline of theologyRichard Hooker defines theology as the science of things divine 34 The term can however be used for a variety of disciplines or fields of study 35 Theology considers whether the divine exists in some form such as in physical supernatural mental or social realities and what 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 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 EditThe history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as old as the history of such institutions themselves For instance Taxila was an early centre of 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 the School of Nisibis was a centre of Christian learning from the 4th century AD 40 41 Nalanda in India was a site of Buddhist higher learning from at least the 5th or 6th century AD 37 149 and the Moroccan University of Al Karaouine was a centre of Islamic learning from the 10th century 42 as was Al Azhar University in Cairo 43 The earliest universities were developed under the aegis of the Latin Church by papal bull as studia generalia and perhaps from cathedral schools It is possible however that the development of cathedral schools into universities was quite rare with the University of Paris being an exception 44 Later they were also founded by Kings University of Naples Federico II Charles University in Prague Jagiellonian University in Krakow or municipal administrations University of Cologne University of Erfurt In the early medieval period most new universities were founded from pre existing schools usually when these schools were deemed to have become primarily sites of higher education Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries 45 Christian theological learning was therefore a 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 46 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 47 During the High Middle Ages theology was the ultimate subject at universities being named The Queen of the Sciences and 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 Christian theology s preeminent place in the university began to be challenged during the European Enlightenment especially in Germany 49 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 50 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 49 51 52 53 Ministerial training Edit 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 54 49 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 55 In the United States several prominent colleges and universities were started in order to train Christian ministers Harvard 56 Georgetown 57 Boston University Yale 58 Duke University 59 and Princeton 60 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 examples in the United States including Phoenix Seminary Catholic Theological Union in Chicago 61 The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley 62 Criswell College in Dallas 63 The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville 64 Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield Illinois 65 Dallas Theological Seminary 66 North Texas Collegiate Institute in Farmers Branch Texas 67 and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield Missouri The only Judeo Christian seminary for theology is the Idaho Messianic Bible Seminary which is part of the Jewish University of Colorado in Denver 68 As an academic discipline in its own right Edit 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 69 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 Edit 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 70 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 Sociology of religionSometimes theology and religious studies are seen as being in tension 71 and at other times they are held to coexist without serious tension 72 Occasionally it is denied that there is as clear a boundary between them 73 Criticism EditSee also Criticism of religion Pre 20th century Edit Whether or not reasoned discussion about the divine is possible has long been a point of contention Protagoras as early as the fifth century 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 74 75 Baron d Holbach Since at least the eighteenth century various authors have criticized the suitability of theology as an academic discipline 76 In 1772 Baron d Holbach labeled theology a continual insult to human reason in Le Bon sens 76 Lord Bolingbroke an English politician and political philosopher wrote in Section IV of his Essays on Human Knowledge Theology is in fault not religion Theology is a science that may justly be compared to the Box of Pandora Many good things lie uppermost in it but many evil lie under them and scatter plagues and desolation throughout the world 77 Thomas Paine a Deistic American political theorist and pamphleteer wrote in his three part work The Age of Reason 1794 1795 1807 78 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 79 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 80 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 81 82 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 Edit 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 83 Jewish atheist philosopher Walter Kaufmann in his essay Against Theology sought to differentiate theology from religion in general 84 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 84 English atheist Charles Bradlaugh believed theology prevented human beings from achieving liberty 85 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 86 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 87 The British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has been an outspoken critic of theology 76 88 In an article published in The Independent in 1993 he severely criticizes theology as entirely useless 88 declaring that it has completely and repeatedly failed to answer any questions about the nature of reality or the human condition 88 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 88 He then states that if all theology were completely eradicated from the earth no one would notice or even care He concludes 88 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 also EditThealogyReferences Edit theology Wordnetweb princeton edu Retrieved 11 November 2012 See e g Migliore Daniel L 2004 Faith Seeking Understanding An Introduction to Christian Theology 2nd ed Grand Rapids Eerdmans See e g Kogan Michael S 1995 Toward a Jewish Theology of Christianity Journal of Ecumenical Studies 32 1 89 106 Archived from the online on 15 June 2006 See e g Dormor Duncan et al eds 2003 Anglicanism the Answer to Modernity London Continuum See e g Spong John Shelby 2001 Why Christianity Must Change or Die New York Harper Collins See e g Burrell David 1994 Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions Notre Dame University of Notre Dame Press See e g Gorringe Timothy 2004 Crime Changing Society and the Churches Series London Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 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 Ramanuja Cambridge Studies in Religious Traditions 2 Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 0 521 38516 4 ISBN 978 0 521 38516 9 Retrieved 5 April 2010 p 4 The accusative plural of the neuter noun logion cf Bauer Walter William F Arndt F Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W Danker 1979 A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament 2nd ed Chicago University of Chicago Press p 476 For examples of logia in the New Testament cf Acts 7 38 Romans 3 2 1 Peter 4 11 Scouteris Constantine B 1972 2016 Ἡ ἔnnoia tῶn ὅrwn 8eologia 8eologeῖn 8eologos ἐn tῇ didaskaliᾳ tῶn Ἑllhnwn Paterwn kai Ἐkklhsiastikῶn syggrafewn mexri kai tῶn Kappadokῶn 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 Langland Piers Plowman A ix 136 Adam James 1902 The Republic of Plato 2 360C Cambridge Cambridge University Press Aristotle Metaphysics Book Epsilon Archived 16 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine a b Augustine City of God VI ch 5 Tertullian Ad Nationes II ch 1 Augustine of Hippo City of God Book VIII i Archived 4 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine de divinitate rationem sive sermonem Boethius On the Holy Trinity PDF Retrieved 11 November 2012 Evans G R 1980 Old Arts and New Theology The Beginnings of Theology as an Academic Discipline Oxford Clarendon Press pp 31 32 McGukin John 2001 Saint Gregory of Nazianzus An Intellectual Biography Crestwood NY St Vladimir s Seminary Press p 278 Gregory of Nazianzus uses the word in this sense in his fourth century Theological Orations 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 Fathers introduction to his Theological Orations that he was a defender of the divinity of Christ the Word See the title of Peter Abelard s Theologia Christiana and perhaps most famously of Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica Theology Oxford English Dictionary note See e g Hodge Charles 1871 Systematic Theology 1 part 1 Oxford English Dictionary sense 1 Theology 1 d and Theological A 3 Oxford English Dictionary 1989 Times Literary Supplement 329 4 5 June 1959 The theological approach to Soviet Marxism proves in the long run unsatisfactory 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 Kapic Kelly M Kapic 2012 A Little Book for New Theologians Why and How to Study Theology Downers Grove Illinois InterVarsity Press p 36 ISBN 978 0 830 86670 0 Gardet L 1999 Ilm al kalam The Encyclopedia of Islam edited by P J Bearman et al Leiden Koninklijke Brill NV Libenson Dan and Lex Rofeberg hosts 5 October 2018 God and Gender Rachel Adler Ep 138 in Judaism Unbound podcast 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 Harvey Graham 2007 Listening People Speaking Earth Contemporary Paganism 2nd ed London Hurst amp Company p 1 ISBN 978 1 85065 272 4 Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity 3 8 11 PDF Retrieved 11 November 2012 McGrath Alister 1998 Historical Theology An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought Oxford Blackwell Publishers pp 1 8 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 a b Scharfe 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 Yao Xinzhong 2000 An Introduction to Confucianism Cambridge Cambridge University Press p 50 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 The School of Nisibis Nestorian org Archived from the original on 3 March 2016 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 Beattie Andrew 2005 Cairo A Cultural History New York Oxford University Press p 101 Leff Gordon 1968 Paris and Oxford Universities in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries An Institutional and Intellectual History Wiley Johnson Paul 2000 The Renaissance A Short History Modern Library Chronicles New York Modern Library p 9 Ruegg Walter 2003 Themes pp 3 34 in A History of the University in Europe edited by W Ruegg and H de Ridder Symoens Universities in the Middle Ages 1 Cambridge Cambridge University Press pp 15 16 See D Costa Gavin 2005 Theology in the Public Square Church Academy and Nation Oxford Blackwell ch 1 Howard Thomas Albert 2006 Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University Oxford Oxford University Press p 56 philosophy the scientia scientarum in one sense was in another portrayed as the humble handmaid of theology a b c Howard Thomas Albert 2006 Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University Oxford Oxford University Press See the discussion of for instance Immanuel Kant s Conflict of the Faculties 1798 and J G Fichte s Deduzierter Plan einer zu Berlin errichtenden hoheren Lehranstalt 1807 in Howard Thomas Albert 2006 Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University Oxford Oxford University Press Frei Hans W 1992 Types of Christian Theology edited by W C Placher and G Hunsinger New Haven CT Yale University Press D Costa Gavin 2005 Theology in the Public Square Church Academy and Nation Oxford Blackwell McClendon James W 2000 Theology and the University Ch 10 in Systematic Theology 3 Witness Nashville TN Abingdon Schleiermacher Friedrich 1990 Brief Outline of Theology as a Field of Study 2nd ed translated by T N Tice Lewiston NY Edwin Mellen Kratz Reinhard G 2002 Academic Theology in Germany Religion 32 2 113 16 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 amp Zeal for upholding amp Propagating of the Christian Protestant Religion by a succession of Learned amp 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 Duke University Libraries 11 July 2013 Duke University A Brief Narrative History Duke University Libraries Retrieved 10 April 2020 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 Companion Archived 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 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 See About DTS at the Dallas Theological Seminary website Retrieved 29 August 2009 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 North Texas Collegiate Institute North Texas Collegiate Institute Jewish University of Colorado Jewish University of Colorado See the Why Study Theology Archived 9 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine page at the University of Exeter Retrieved 1 September 2009 and the About us page at the University of Leeds See e g Wiebe Donald 2000 The Politics of Religious Studies The Continuing Conflict with Theology in the Academy New York Palgrave Macmillan Noll K L 27 July 2009 The Ethics of Being a Theologian Chronicle of Higher Education 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 Fitzgerald Timothy 2000 The Ideology of Religious Studies Oxford Oxford University Press 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 Poster Carol Protagoras fl 5th C BCE Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Retrieved 6 October 2008 a b c Loughlin Gerard 2009 11 Theology in the university In Ker John Merrigan Terrance eds The Cambridge Companion to John Henry Newman Cambridge England Cambridge University Press pp 221 240 doi 10 1017 CCOL9780521871860 011 ISBN 9780521871860 The Philosophical Works of Lord Bolingbroke 3 p 396 Paine Thomas 1794 1795 1807 1945 The Age of Reason The Life and Major Writings of Thomas Paine edited by P S Foner New York Citadel Press p 601 Feuerbach Ludwig 1986 Principles of the Philosophy of the Future translated by M H Vogel Indianapolis Hackett Publishing Company p 5 Feuerbach Ludwig 1841 1989 Preface XVI The Essence of Christianity translated G Eliot Amherst New York Prometheus Books Twain Mark 1896 The Lowest Animal thoughtco com Directory of Mark Twain s maxims quotations and various opinions Twainquotes com 28 November 1902 Retrieved 11 November 2012 Ayer A J 1936 Language Truth and Logic New York Dover Publications pp 114 15 a b Kaufmann Walter 1963 The Faith of a Heretic Garden City NY Anchor Books pp 114 127 28 130 Charles Bradlaugh 1833 1891 Positiveatheism org Archived from the original on 1 May 2013 Retrieved 11 November 2012 Humanity s Gain from Unbelief Positiveatheism org Archived from the original on 17 July 2012 Retrieved 11 November 2012 Robert Green Ingersoll Positiveatheism org 11 August 1954 Archived from the original on 5 August 2012 Retrieved 11 November 2012 a b c d e Dawkin Richard 20 March 1993 Letter Scientific versus theological knowledge The Independent Archived from the original on 7 May 2022 External links Edit Look up theology in Wiktionary the free dictionary At Wikiversity you can learn more and teach others about Theology at the School of Theology Wikiquote has quotations related to Theology Wikimedia Commons has media related to Theology Theology on Encyclopaedia Britannica Chattopadhyay Subhasis Reflections on Hindu Theology in Prabuddha Bharata or Awakened India 120 12 664 672 2014 ISSN 0032 6178 Edited by Swami Narasimhananda Theology public domain audiobook at LibriVox Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Theology amp oldid 1131126096, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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