1. Introduction to Theology
Theology: what, who, why?
Characteristics of systematic theology
Contextual nature of theology
Method in theology
Evangelical theology
General and special revelation, including knowledge of God
© 2001 Brenda B. Colijn

2. Theology: What, Who, Why? Theology = theos + logos = study of God.
Used for the study of all Christian doctrine.
Used for the study of the doctrine of God.
Theology is a second-order activity.
Faith is primary (relationship with God).
Theology is our reflection on the content of our faith and our articulation of it.
Systematic theology - comprehensive, logical, topical.

3. Theology: What, Who, Why? Who does theology?
Every believer is a theologian.
We do theology formally and informally.
We have “implicit, unexamined theologies” by which we live our lives.
The only question is how biblically sound and how thoughtful our theologies are.

4. Theology: What, Who, Why?
Do you have to be a Christian to do Christian theology?
Most theologians would say yes.
The Holy Spirit is needed to understand spiritual things.
If it helps form our identity as Christians, then only one who has been formed should do it.
Theologians should be servants of the church.

5. Theology: What, Who, Why? Why do we need Christian theology?
To worship God with our minds (Mk. 12:30).
To preserve God’s revelation to us (2 Tim. 2:2).
To build up the church (Eph. 4:11-16).
To inform our Christian lives (1 Tim. 1:3-5).
To share and defend our faith (1 Pet. 3:15-16).
To distinguish truth from falsehood (Titus 1:9).
To form our Christian identity.

6. Characteristics of Theology
Characteristics of systematic theology
Biblically based
Systematic (comprehensive and logical)
Related to issues of general culture and learning
Contemporary (relevant to culture)
Practical; should issue in ethics.

7. Characteristics of Theology
Is theology a science?
Middle Ages: Queen of the Sciences.
Kant: no, because we can know only sense data.
Has objective source of knowledge, particular method and controls; tests hypotheses.
This view may downplay role of Holy Spirit.
Emphasizes cognitive/rational over relational and personal. Theology is more than rational.
Leads us to adopt “scientific” presuppositions.

8. Characteristics of Theology
Theology and philosophy = love/hate
Tertullian: “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?”
Augustine: All truth belongs to Christians.
Philosophy has always influenced theology.
It can help us develop and communicate theology, but the primary subject matter of theology is from revelation, not philosophy.

9. Characteristics of Theology

10. Characteristics of Theology
Cautions about theology (from Grenz):
Substitution - substituting theology for a living, personal faith.
Dogmatism - regarding our theology as absolute and not open to correction.
Intellectualism: viewing theology as solely intellectual; divorcing it from ethics.

11. Characteristics of Theology
It’s a human construct based on revelation.
We have true knowledge.
We have partial knowledge.
We have analogical knowledge; we build models.
There is no inspired theology.

12. Characteristics of Theology
It’s a human construct based on revelation.
Theology is always under development.
Test theologies by Scripture, not vice versa.
Acknowledge paradox and mystery.
Be content not to go further than Scripture can support.
Humility is a requirement for theologians!

13. Contextual Nature of Theology
Read developing statements of faith.
What form do they take?
What seems to be their function?
What are their main concerns?
What changes do you see over time?

14. Contextual Nature of Theology
Starts as narrative (recital) of crucial events.
Organization changes to topical.
Differences depending on current issues.
Change in sources of authority from eyewitness testimony and OT to tradition.
Becomes more philosophical and technical.
See the “biblical-classical synthesis” here.

15. Contextual Nature of Theology
Theology grows out of issues/needs in culture (and particular theological traditions) and addresses those issues/needs.
It also reflects the theologian who writes it.
This is why there are so many systematic theologies and why they’re dated so quickly.
So ask WHOSE systematic theology?

16. Contextual Nature of Theology
Dialogue between kerygma and context.
kerygma
context
biblical message
contemporary culture
Must be faithful to the kerygma.
Must be relevant to the context.
Make gospel understandable, not acceptable.

17. Contextual Nature of Theology
Presuppositions of this course:
Evangelical perspective.
Grenz: “avowedly Evangelical” and “unabashedly Baptist.”
Me: Anabaptist, Arminian, Evangelical.

18. Method in Theology Sources and norms
Source: where do we get our material?
Norm: by what do we validate our theology?
Sources: Bible, tradition, contemporary issues, insights from other disciplines, etc.
Possible norms: Scripture, tradition, reason, experience.

19. Method in Theology Grenz suggests a threefold norm: Tom Finger:
“Paradigmatic events” of Scripture
Theological heritage of church (tradition)
Thought-forms of contemporary culture.
Tom Finger:
Scripture is the norm of the truth of theology.
Contemporary culture is the norm of its intelligibility.

20. Method in Theology
Three methods differ in how they relate kerygma to context:
Concordance model (“propositionalist”): view Scripture as system of propositional truths; ignore context.
Synthesis model: adapt kerygma to fit context.
Contextualizing model: translate kerygma into new context. Paradigm of the incarnation.

21. Method in Theology Theology uses models or analogies.
Integrative motif = central organizing feature that gives unity to all the theological themes.
Grenz community.
Begins with kingdom of God.
This is lived out as community.
It is eschatological (experienced in part now, fully in the consummation).

22. Evangelical Theology Defined in many ways:
Commitment to Christ and Scripture
Particular doctrines + particular experience
Grenz: a particular “vision of the faith”; “an experiential piety cradled in a theology”
Different definitions stem from different influences in the evangelical heritage.

23. Protestant Scholastic Orthodoxy
Evangelical Theology
Evangelicalism as a modern movement:
Reformation
Protestant Scholastic Orthodoxy
Pietism
Fundamentalism

24. Evangelical Theology Criticisms of evangelical theology:
Tends to be ahistorical, peripheral, parochial
Overemphasis on experiential or rational
Docetic, individualistic/privatistic
No consistent critique of American culture
Evangelicalism at its best balances…
Kerygma and context; Word and Spirit
Propositional and personal/existential truth
Orthodoxy and orthopraxy
Individual and community
Inner & outer life; evangelism & social concern

25. General and Special Revelation
Does God exist? How can we know God?
Revelation = God’s self-disclosure.
General revelation = God’s self-disclosure to all humans or to humans in general. Communicated naturally.
Special revelation = God’s self-disclosure to certain special or specific persons. Communicated supernaturally.

26. General and Special Revelation
Is natural theology possible? (theology from general revelation only, via human reason)
GR + NT SR (Thomas Aquinas)
GR but no NT (Reformers)
GR and NT over SR (Enlightenment rationalists)
Reject both GR and NT (Barth)
Blend GR and SR (Pannenberg)
GR too general to build doctrine of God (Grenz)

27. General and Special Revelation
Part of natural theology = arguments for the existence of God.
To understand these arguments, we need to understand Plato and Aristotle on the nature of reality.

28. General and Special Revelation
Plato’s myth of the cave

29. General and Special Revelation
Plato Aristotle
Universal
particular
Universal
particular

30. General and Special Revelation
Ontological argument (Anselm) - Platonic
A priori (prior to sense experience)
Ontology = being
Existence is required by the idea of God.
God is “that [being] than which no greater can be conceived.”
A being that exists is greater than a being that does not exist.
To be the greatest of all possible beings, God must exist.

31. General and Special Revelation
Ontological argument (Anselm) - Platonic
Cosmological argument (Aquinas) - Arist.
A posteriori (subsequent to sense experience)
Argument from first cause
God is the Uncaused Cause who started the chain of causation in the universe.
Similar to the argument from motion: God is the Unmoved Mover who began motion in the universe.

32. General and Special Revelation
Ontological argument (Anselm) - Platonic
Cosmological argument (Aquinas) - Arist.
Teleological argument (Aquinas) - Arist.
A posteriori; telos = goal
Argument from design.
The universe demonstrates purposeful order.
Purpose requires intelligence.
Watchmaker analogy (a watch requires a maker).

33. General and Special Revelation
Ontological argument (Anselm) - Platonic
Cosmological argument (Aquinas) - Arist.
Teleological argument (Aquinas) - Arist.
Anthropological or moral argument (Kant) - A.
A posteriori, based on human moral sense.
We have a moral imperative that often isn’t rewarded in this life.
This imperative must come from someone and must be rewarded in an afterlife.

34. General and Special Revelation
Ontological argument (Anselm) - Platonic
Cosmological argument (Aquinas) - Arist.
Teleological argument (Aquinas) - Arist.
Anthropological or moral argument (Kant) - A.
Modern version of this argument uses terms like self-transcendence and openness to the world; human desire for self-transcendence must have a transcendent origin.
Pascal’s “God-shaped vacuum” in human hearts.

35. General and Special Revelation
What is at stake in these arguments?
Intellectual coherence of the faith.
Confirm faith of believers; show them that the faith is intellectually credible.
Defense of the faith to unbelievers.
How do we approach the problem of knowing God?
Note that none of these arguments attempts to prove the existence of the Christian God.

36. General and Special Revelation
By what means do we know God?
Reason?
Religious experience?
Revelation?
Approaches to apologetics are based on how people can know God.
Evidentialist - show me the proofs.
Fideist - accept it on faith.
Presuppositionalist - test the hypothesis.

37. General and Special Revelation
What does “God is subject, not object” mean?
God isn’t a subject matter we can master.
We can know God only through revelation.
Knowing God means primarily having a relationship with God, not knowing about God.
God knows us before we can know him.

38. General and Special Revelation
What does community have to do with knowing God?
Community helps us come to know God through words, actions, life together.
Community helps to form our identity.
Community helps us grow in our relationship with God and grow as part of the people of God.
See 1 John 4:7-8.

39. General and Special Revelation
If you had a friend who was an atheist but was open to discussing religion, how would you approach the subject with him or her? If you have done this, what approach(es) seem to be helpful?