What is Theology?

Part of evaluating theological points of view and trends is to ask the question, "Just exactly what is theology?"  Is it a hobby? Is it "mental gymnastics?" Is it what leading African American theologian James Cone called "intellectual masturbation?"  Just exactly what is it?

The word theology comes from two Greek words, "theos," which means God, and "logy" which means study or discourse of.  Since no one can study God in the strictest sense, I will, for the purposes of this essay define theology as "a discourse about God."

I will begin by saying that all of us are theologians.  One does not need to have a degree in religion or theology to be a theologian.  Anyone who engages in any type of discourse about God is a theologian. Anyone who tries to make sense of the Bible or any other piece of religious literature is a theologian.  Even the decision not to engage in theological discourse is a theological decision.  We all engage in theology on a regular basis by either deciding to engage in or refrain from theological discussion. In a strict sense, even agnostics and atheists are theologians. They have decided to either doubt or outright deny the existence of God. Those are, by default, theological decisions. We cannot escape theology altogether, as we are constantly faced with the decision to engage with it or ignore it.

We all base our theology on something or someone that we consider to be the final authority or the final word.  That authority, whether it be the authority of sacred literature, or the authority of a person considered to be delegated by God, is considered to be normative for living and practice.  In Christian theology, the following are considered to be the sources from which we derive our theology (beliefs and practices).

1.  The Bible- Some Christian individuals and churches resort to a verbatim reading of Scripture, simply regurgitating "what the Bible says."  This approach can be easily described what a good friend of mine refers to as the "quick to verse approach," i.e. the tendency to cite Scripture verses and passages without taking into consideration the cultural and literary background of those passages. Those who resort to this approach usually have the attitude of the "the Bible says so, end of story."  Other Christians utilize the historical-critical approach to Scripture, in which they confront questions of authorship, date, audience, reason for writing, style, literary genre, and sources of information. Those Christians who resort to this method still to consider the Bible normative for theology and doctrine, but with some modification and qualification. They, by and large, do not consider it a necessary postulate to resort to a literalist reading of the Bible in order to establish doctrine, or to, even for that matter, consider the Bible to be a sacred piece of literature.

2. Tradition- Tradition plays a large role in Christian theology.  Some Christians (Protestant) believe that tradition is secondary to Scripture, because to them, the Bible is the primary and final authority for faith and practice.  Other Christians (Catholic and Orthodox) believe that tradition is on a par with Scripture, especially because tradition (the customs and practices of the church) were already in place long before the Bible was written.  They believe tradition gave birth to the Bible and that in fact, the Bible itself is a tradition.  This writer (yours truly) is inclined to be aligned with the Catholic and Orthodox position.  However, my Protestant bias leads me support the notion that for a teaching to be valid, it must somehow be rooted in biblical revelation, properly understood and interpreted. When I say "properly understood and interpreted," I mean being in sync with the intention of the writers of Scripture, i.e uphold what they intended to teach.

3.  Experience- As Christians, both individually and collectively speaking, we have experiences that color the way we think and do theology.  Some of us interpret our experiences in light of Scripture, and tradition, while others of us interpret the Scriptures and the traditions in the light of our experiences.  There is a "give and take" in this approach.

4.   Branches of  human knowledge- In the last two or three centuries, religious scholars have come to acknowledge and recognize the need for believers to be aware of fields of knowledge and study other than that of religion.  We cannot, they have correctly taught us, understand the Bible and religion as a whole, unless we are in conversation with fields like history, culture, languages, philosophy, psychology, and other subjects.  If we ignore these other dimensions of knowledge, we will end up with a very enclosed view of Scripture and religion.  Furthermore, the tendency will be to take a defensive position when confronted with objective data from other fields of study.

5.  Hearsay and Rumors- Many Christians do not have a well-thought out theology. They prefer, instead, to base their beliefs and practices on what "Joe Blow (Pancho Pasteles)" and "Mary Jane (Chencha Pandereta)" taught them.  Others, base their theology on rumors that they have heard in the market-place and/or the barber shop.  This type of theology is usually emotional in nature, because it reflects a blind swallowing of everything that they have heard, without bothering to examine "if these things are so."  This approach does not require the rigorous task of examination and research, but rather, the simple "two and two is four" approach.  In this approach, people let those who they consider to be "experts" think for them, and tell them what to and what not to believe.

I now invite you, the reader to comment on this essay, as we prepare to delve into looking at various theological schools of thought.  Feel free to raise any type of question or make any type of comment that you think is appropriate to this introduction to theology.  Your comments are considered to helpful and important to this discourse.

Grace and peace,

Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona