The study of theology will be shaped by certain elements, be it the thoughts and presumptions of the time, or due to personal experience. As theology can be shaped around people's own experience, the term "practical theology" has been coined, as people's theological views will be based around incidents that have already occurred.
As experiences/beliefs change or are re-examined, this means that "theological reflection" also occurs. This is the process by which theological ideas are created. As past events are re-examined a different conclusion can be drawn from them, which will lead to a whole new set of theological ideas being created. For instance, the Catholic Church has changed its view point on what happens to children who die without being baptised, from previously (and dogmatically) believing that children who died without baptism were unable to enter heaven to now believing that “there are reasons to hope that God will save these infants precisely because it was not possible to do for them that what would have been most desirable— to baptize them in the faith of the Church and incorporate them visibly into the Body of Christ.”[1] Therefore, it is clear that theological ideas can and do change if the viewpoints that they are based on are re-evaluated.
A further way of examining theology is contextually. This takes into account the situation when the theological ideas where created. For instance, the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote whilst in a Nazi prison “What is bothering me increasingly is the question... who Christ really is for us today” and “We are moving towards a completely religion less time”[2] Of course, Bonhoeffer was living in what must have seemed like a Godless society at the time, and as such his work must be treated with a degree of caution, but clearly Bonhoeffer believes that the world is moving towards an increasingly atheist/secular society. Furthermore, after looking at theology contextually, a variety of new types of theology have emerged, such as feminist theology, which examines how women were treated in the Bible and challenging how women were portrayed in the bible.[3] It could be argued therefore, that contextual theology can often be combined with theological reflection. This is because people will examine the times when an idea was created, and ma challenge it as it does not agree with what they believe in
To conclude, all theology is practical, as it is based on the experiences of certain people. Theological ideas can also be changed due to theological reflection, as the times and ideas may change. Finally, theological notions can be examined contextually, which will shed some light on both the writer and the time in which the writer was working in.
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