Theology is the study of God and all things in relation to God. Christian theology is therefore the study of the Christian God as revealed through His creation and through the Bible. All Christians think about God and try to learn about God. In this sense, all Christians practice theology. The question is whether one practices good theology or bad theology. These discussion posts are an attempt to provide Christians a correct understanding of theology issues so that their inevitable practice of theology might improve, perhaps substantially so.
There are two basic approaches to theology that can be thought of as “outsider theology” and “insider theology.” Outsider theology is the study of Christian beliefs independent of faith. Although this type of theology can be (and typically is) practiced by believing Christians, all inquiries and investigations are made independent of personal faith. Arguments made by outsider theology can be followed equally by believers and non-believers. Outsider theology is useful for demonstrating the reasonableness of Christian beliefs to non-Christians, and for believing Christians to have an increased intellectual understanding of the reasonableness of their beliefs. But faith is central to all aspects of Christianity and so outsider theology is typically not best for believing Christians trying to better understand their faith.
Insider theology is commonly referred to as “faith seeking understanding.” With this approach, a Christian with faith seeks to strengthen this faith by better understanding God and God’s creation. This is done by engaging the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit to supplement pure academic study. Ultimately, God reveals aspects of Himself directly to individuals. Insider theology therefore utilizes faith and prayer to better understand what God wants to teach us through Scripture and many other sources such as the created world, reason, and Christian tradition.
This website takes the insider approach to theology. It assumes by faith that the Bible is authoritative on spiritual matters, is consistent on spiritual matters, and is a mechanism through which believing Christians can directly experience the presence of God through the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit. It also assumes by faith that Jesus Christ is fully God, came to earth to suffer and die for the sins of humanity, was resurrected from the dead, and ascended into Heaven. These aspects of faith serve as the starting point for insider theological understanding. Discussion of other systems are welcome, but with the explicit understanding that they do not represent orthodox Christianity.
The relationship between faith and understanding has opposing views. Some think that a faith that requires understanding is not true faith at all. Others think that faith without understanding is an immature faith. A middle view is that faith and understanding are mutually supportive. A typical Christian begins with a little bit of faith and a little bit of understanding. A little bit more understanding through Bible study or church attendance can lead to an increase in faith. Similarly, an increase in faith through prayer or worship can lead to greater understanding. Increases in faith and understanding can therefore result in a virtuous cycle as a Christian matures and grows.
It is important to understand that faith is required for all knowledge, including scientific and historical knowledge. When we read about an event in a history book, it can never be known with certainty that the event occurred precisely as the historian describes it or that the event occurred at all. The strength of our belief depends upon our faith that the author’s account is accurate, and there are a host of further investigations that can increase this faith, decrease this faith, or modify this faith. Science is similar, except instead of describing historical events, scientific theories attempt to describe what has been observed and to use these theories to make prediction about the future. It takes faith to believe that these scientific theories have predictive power. When a scientific theory makes a correct prediction, our faith in it increases. And when a scientific theory makes an incorrect prediction, our faith in it decreases.
Theology is similar. When a theological proposition seems to agree with what we read in the Bible our faith in it increases. When a theological proposition seems to disagree with what we read in the Bible our faith in it decreases. The same is true in an existential sense. When a theological proposition seems to agree with reality as we experience it our faith in it increases. When a theological proposition seems to disagree with reality as we experience it our faith in it decreases. In this sense, the goal of theology is to identify truth statements that are consistent with one another, that agree with what the Bible as a whole teaches on the subject, and generally are in accordance with our experiences as spiritual beings living in God’s creation.
Fortunately, Christians do not have to start their theological thinking from scratch. Theologians have been developing theological systems since the early days of the church, and the established systems are well tested. The four major theological systems are Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Reformed, and Arminian. Reformed theology is often called Calvinism and is the official theology for Presbyterianism and Reformed churches. Arminian theology is sometimes called Wesleyanism and is the official theology for Methodism. Other denominations and independent churches tend to start with one of these systems and then modify it through additions and deletions. Examples include the Anglican/Episcopal church, Eastern Orthodoxy, various Baptist organizations, Pentecostalism, and Dispensationalism. Furthermore, there are certain non-denominational terms used by Christians that typically also have theological beliefs such as fundamentalism and evangelicalism. All of this makes Christian theology a rich and fascinating subject.
I end this post with a statement that will find strong disagreement among many theologians and pastors. There is not one theological system that is objectively better or worse than others. Most theologians are convinced that their preferred theological system is superior and will therefore disagree. Most clergy will object to anything contrary to the prescribed doctrine of their denomination or church organization and will therefore also disagree. But all distinctions between these four major theological systems of Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Reformed, and Arminian have been rigorously challenged with many compelling arguments. Furthermore, there are numerous Christians that sincerely believe in each of these theologies. There are about 1.3 billion Roman Catholics, 80 million Lutherans, 75 million Reformers/Presbyterian, and about 80 million Arminian/Methodist. Christian love and humility should caution one who might be inclined to dismiss any of these people’s faith as either bad Christianity or ineffective for salvation. This is not to say that a Christian cannot prefer one theology over another, believe that certain dogma and doctrine are true, and believe that certain dogma and doctrine are false. In fact, I suspect that most will do so after engaging with this website. But hopefully we all can consider ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ first and use our theological differences in a way that best glorifies God.
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