Theology is the study of a god God is the English name given to the singular omnipotent being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism or, more generally, the study of religious Religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or a set of beliefs concerning the origin and purpose of the universe. It is commonly regarded as consisting of a person’s relation to God or to gods or spirits. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories associated with their deity or deities, that are faith, practice, and experience Religious experience is a subjective experience where an individual reports contact with a transcendent reality, an encounter or union with the divine, or of spirituality Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual's inner life; such practices often lead to an.

Definition

Augustine of Hippo Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430), also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, or St. Austin was Bishop of Hippo Regius. He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province. His writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity defined the Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native speakers, a small number of scholars can fluently speak it and it continues to be taught in schools and universities and has been, and currently is, used in the process of equivalent, theologia, as "reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity",^[1] Richard Hooker Richard Hooker was an Anglican priest and an influential theologian. Hooker's emphases on reason, tolerance and the value of tradition considerably influenced the development of Anglicanism. He was the co-founder[citation needed] (with Thomas Cranmer and Matthew Parker) of Anglican theological thought defined "theology" in English English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into South-East Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria. Following the economic, political, military, scientific, cultural, and colonial influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 18th century, via as "the science of things divine".^[2] The term can, however, be used for a variety of different disciplines or forms of discourse.^[3] Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument (philosophical Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing fundamental questions by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the, ethnographic Ethnography is a research strategy often used in the social sciences, particularly in anthropology and in some branches of sociology. It is often employed for gathering empirical data on human societies/cultures. Data collection is often done through participant observation, interviews, questionnaires, etc. Ethnography aims to describe the nature, historical History is the study of the human past. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it sometimes attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. Historians debate the nature of history and its, spiritual Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of their being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual's inner life; such practices often lead to an and others) to help understand Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as a person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object, explain An explanation is a set of statements constructed to describe a set of facts which clarifies the causes, context, and consequences of those facts, test, critique A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative (in dispraise), or balanced (weighing a combination of factors both for and against). Since, defend or promote any of myriad religious topics Many Wikipedia articles on religious topics are not yet listed on this page. If you cannot find the topic you are interested in on this page, it still may already exist; you can try to find it using the "Search" box. If you find that it exists, you can edit this page to add a link to it. Theology might be undertaken to help the theologian

• understand more truly his or her own religious tradition Traditions serve to preserve a wide range of culturally significant ideas, specific practices and the various methods used by distinct cultures. The word tradition comes from the Latin traditionem which is the accusative case of traditio which means "handing over, passing on",^[4]
• understand more truly another religious tradition,^[5]
• make comparisons Comparative religion is a field of religious studies that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions. Religion can be defined as the human notions regarding the sacred, numinous, spiritual and divine between religious traditions,^[6]
• defend or justify Early Christian writers who defended their faith against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called apologists a religious tradition,
• facilitate reform of a particular tradition,^[7]
• assist in the propagation Proselytizing is the act of attempting to convert people to another opinion and, particularly, another religion. The word proselytize is derived ultimately from the Greek language prefix 'πρός' and the verb 'έρχομαι' (I come). Historically in the Koine Greek Septuagint and New Testament, the word proselyte denoted a gentile who was of a religious tradition,^[8] or
• draw on the resources of a tradition to address some present situation or need,^[9]
• draw on the resources of a tradition to explore possible ways of interpreting the world,^[10] or
• explore the nature of divinity without reference to any specific tradition.

History of the term

Theology translates into English the Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of theologia (θεολογία) (from theos (θεός) meaning god and logos (λόγος) meaning word, discourse Discourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication or debate" The following are three more specific definitions:, or reasoning Reasoning is the cognitive process of looking for reasons, beliefs, conclusions, actions or feelings, plus the abstract substantive suffix ia), which had passed into Latin as theologia and into French as théologie. The English equivalent "theology" (Theologie, Teologye) had evolved 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 Patristics or Patrology is the study of Early Christian writers, known as the Church Fathers. The names derive from the Greek pater . The period is generally considered to run from the end of New Testament times or end of the Apostolic Age (circa 100 CE) to either 451 CE (the date of the Council of Chalcedon), or to the 8th century Second Council and medieval This is an overview of the history of theology in Greek thought, Christianity, Judaism and Islam from the time of Jesus to the present Christian usage, though the English term has now spread beyond Christian contexts.

• Greek theologia (θεολογια) was used with the meaning "discourse on god" in the fourth century B.C. by Plato Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Plato was originally a in The Republic The Republic , by Plato, is a Socratic dialogue about the order and character of the City-State. The dialogues, among Socrates and various Athenians and foreigners, discuss the meaning of justice, and examine whether or not the just man is happier than the unjust man, by proposing a society ruled by philosopher-kings and the guardians; hence the, Book ii, Ch. 18.^[12] Aristotle Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most divided theoretical philosophy into mathematike, physike and theologike, with the latter corresponding roughly to metaphysics Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world although it is not easily defined.. Someone who studies metaphysics would be called either a metaphysicist or a metaphysician, which, for Aristotle, included discourse on the nature of the divine.^[13]
• Drawing on Greek Stoic Stoicism was a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC. The Stoics considered destructive emotions to be the result of errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions. Stoics were concerned with the active sources, the Latin Latin or sometimes Roman is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Although often considered a dead language, in view of the fact that it has no native speakers, a small number of scholars can fluently speak it and it continues to be taught in schools and universities and has been, and currently is, used in the process of writer Varro Marcus Terentius Varro , also known as Varro Reatinus to distinguish him from his younger contemporary Varro Atacinus, was a Roman scholar and writer distinguished three forms of such discourse: 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).^[14]

• Theologos, closely related to theologia, appears once in some biblical manuscripts A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. The word Bible comes from the Greek biblion ; manuscript comes from Latin manu (hand) and scriptum (written). The original manuscript (the original parchment the author physically wrote on) is called the "autographa." Biblical manuscripts vary in size, in the heading to the book of Revelation The Book of the Revelation of John, usually referred to simply as Revelation or the Book of Revelation, is the last book of the New Testament. It is also called the Apocalypse of John in Catholic parlance. Apocalypse, from the Greek, is a synonym for "Revelation", but also from it comes the name for the type of literature; an ": apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy, "the revelation of John the theologos." There, however, the word refers not to John the "theologian" in the modern English sense of the word but—using a slightly different sense of the root logos, meaning not "rational discourse" but "word" or "message"—one who speaks the words of God, logoi toy theoy.^[15]
• Some Latin Christian authors, such as Tertullian Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and a polemicist against heresy. Tertullian has been and Augustine Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430), also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, or St. Austin was Bishop of Hippo Regius. He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province. His writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity, followed Varro's threefold usage,^[16], though Augustine also used the term more simply to mean 'reasoning or discussion concerning the deity'^[17]

• In Patristic The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come. The term was used of writers and teachers of the Church, not necessarily saints. A rough classification of these patristic Greek Christian sources, theologia could refer narrowly to devout and inspired knowledge of, and teaching about, the essential nature of God.^[18]

• In some medieval The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in Greek and Latin sources, theologia (in the sense of "an account or record of the ways of God") could refer simply to the Bible The Bible refers to collections of sacred scripture of Judaism and Christianity. There is no single version: both the individual books and their order vary. The Hebrew Bible contains 24 books that were rearranged into 39 by Christian denominations, while complete Christian Bibles range from the 66 books of the Protestant canon to 81 books in the.^[19]

• The Latin author Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius was a Christian philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after Odoacer deposed the last Western Roman, 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).^[20]. Boethius' definition influenced medieval Latin usage.^[21]

• In scholastic Both an outgrowth and a departure from Christian monastic schools, European scholasticism was both a method of learning taught by the academics of medieval universities circa 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context Latin sources, the term came to denote the rational study of the doctrines Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. The Greek analogy is the etymology of catechism 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 Peter Lombard or Petrus Lombardus; was a scholastic theologian and bishop and author of Four Books of Sentences, which became the standard textbook of theology, for which he is also known as Magister Sententiarum's Sentences The Four Books of Sentences is a book of theology written by Peter Lombard in the twelfth century. It is a systematic compilation of theology, written around 1150; it derives its name from the sententiae or authoritative statements on biblical passages that it gathered together, a book of extracts from the Church Fathers).^[22]

• 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 fourteenth century,^[23] though 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 Theology Proper is the study of God in a Christian Trinitarian system, and includes the study of the Holy Spirit and the study of Jesus Christ (Christology). The term Theology (lit. 'God-word') is popularly described as 'talk about God' or God-talk, but is usually used in the generic sense to describe religious studies. Theology Proper may thus be.^[24]

• From the 17th century onwards, it also became possible to use the term 'theology' to refer to study of religious ideas and teachings that are not specifically Christian (e.g., in the phrase 'Natural Theology' which denoted theology based on reasoning from natural facts independent of specifically Christian revelation ^[25]), or that are specific to another religion (see below).

• "Theology" can also now be used in a derived sense to mean "a system of theoretical principles; an (impractical or rigid) ideology."^[26]

Religions other than Christianity

In academic theological circles there is some debate as to whether theology is an activity peculiar to the Christian religion, such that the word "theology" should be reserved for Christian theology Christian theology is discourse concerning Christian faith. Christian theologians use Biblical exegesis, rational analysis, and argument to understand, explain, test, critique, defend or promote Christianity. Theology might be undertaken to help the theologian understand Christianity more truly, make comparisons between Christianity and other, and other words used to name analogous discourses within other religious traditions.^[27] It is seen by some to be a term only appropriate to the study of religions that worship a deity A deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers, often religiously referred to as a god (a theos), and to presuppose belief in the ability to speak and reason Reason is a mental faculty found in humans, that is able to generate conclusions from assumptions or premises. In other words, it is amongst other things the means by which rational beings propose reasons, or explanations of cause and effect. In contrast to reason as an abstract noun, a reason is a consideration which explains or justifies about this deity (in logia)—and so to be less appropriate in religious contexts that are organized differently (religions without a deity, or that deny that such subjects can be studied logically). ("Hierology Holiness, or sanctity, is in general the state of being holy or sacred (considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspiring awe or reverence among believers in a given set of spiritual ideas). In other contexts, objects are often considered 'holy' or 'sacred' if used for spiritual purposes, such as the worship or service of gods" has been proposed as an alternative, more generic term.^[28])

Analogous discourses

• Some academic inquiries within Buddhism, dedicated to the rational 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 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."^[29]
• Within Hindu philosophy, there is a solid and ancient tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the universe, of God (termed "Brahman" in some schools of Hindu thought) and of the Atman (soul). The Sanskrit word for the various schools of Hindu philosophy is Darshana (meaning "view" or "viewpoint"). Vaishnava theology has been a subject of study for many devotees, philosophers and scholars in India for centuries, and in recent decades also has been taken on by a number of academic institutions in Europe, such as the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Bhaktivedanta College.^[30] See also: Krishnology
• Islamic theological discussion that parallels Christian theological discussion is named "Kalam"; the Islamic analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be the investigation and elaboration of Islamic law, or "Fiqh". "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." (L. Gardet)^[31]
• In Judaism, the historical absence of political authority has meant that most theological reflection has happened within the context of the Jewish community and synagogue, rather than within specialized academic institutions. Nevertheless, Jewish theology historically has been very active and highly significant for Christian and Islamic theology. It is sometimes claimed, however, that the Jewish analogue of Christian theological discussion would more properly be Rabbinical discussion of Jewish law and Jewish Biblical commentaries.^[32]

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