Theology

Theology is reasoned discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, "God", + λογος, logos, "word" or "reason"). It also refers to the study of other religious topics. A theologian is a person learned in theology.

Theology and the philosophy of religion

Theology generally assumes the truth of at least some religious beliefs and is therefore often distinguished from the philosophy of religion, which does not presume the truth of any religious beliefs.

Related Topics:
Truth - Philosophy of religion

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Drawing on the work of the American theologian Hans Frei, we may describe the relationship between theology and the philosophy of religion in the following way. At one end of the spectrum we find discussions of religious phenomena and religious claims which seek to explain those phenomena and claims entirely within the terms of some secular discipline (such as psychology or social anthropology), without regard to the view which the practitioners of the religion in question would have of those phenomena or claims (except insofar as those views are symptoms which the investigator is seeking to explain). At the other end of the spectrum we have discussions of these phenomena and claims which seek to work entirely within the religious practitioners' own terms, investigating the internal structures of a particular religious worldview. Between these two extremes are any number of forms of theological inquiry which look for some kind of correlation between these two forms of description - and this is as true of conservative theological approaches as it is of liberal approaches. (For instance, a conservative theologian will tend to correlate the claims they find in their religious scriptures about particular events in the past with the kind of description of the past allowed by historical criticism, arguing at least for compatibility between the two descriptions and possibly for some stronger relationship. A liberal theologian might be more interested in, say, exploring the correlation between the religion's ethical claims and the ideas of some secular philosophy like existentialism.) Forms of correlational discussion will differ, however, according to whether they give priority to the secular discourse or to the internal religious description: which is allowed to set the agenda, which is allowed to over-rule the other, and so on. The term theology can be used to denote any of these forms of correlational discourse, as well as the extreme which restricts itself to religious self-description; the term philosophy of religion will be used both for the opposite extreme and for many of the correlational forms of discourse; it is, however, more likely to be restricted to forms of correlation which give some form of priority to the secular discourse.

Related Topics:
Hans Frei - Psychology - Social anthropology - Worldview - Conservative theologian - Scriptures - Historical criticism - Liberal theologian - Existentialism

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

To the extent that theology relies upon the religious practitioners' own terms, it is likely to be explored by those who have some kind of commitment to those terms: i.e., by those who are either practitioners of the religion, or sympathisers. This is not, however, to say that one must have religious belief in order to be a theologian: some undertake it simply in order better to understand a religion's structure and implications, or as a form of thought experiment - though the further one moves from the philosophy of religion end of the spectrum to the theology end, the rarer non-practitioners become.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~