What is theology?

In the past, there have been several attempts to define what is meant by the term "theology". This article will attempt to dissect these definitions and to add some clarity as to what is meant by theology.

To begin with, Professor Alister McGrath, Professor of Historical theology at Oxford University, defines theology as "talk about god", and Christian Theology as "talk about God from a Christian perspective". He then goes onto say "It begins by recognizing that Christians have quite distinct ideas about who God is and What God is Like. We find these expressed in the Bible." This definition clearly takes an evangelical route, as it works on the basis that the things that Christians believe about God stem from biblical teachings. Whilst these would seem a logical assumption, it rules out the notion that Christians have the capacity to form their own views on who God is, but must instead be almost forced fed views from the bible.

A second definition of what theology is comes from Professor David Ford, who is a professor of Divinity at Cambridge University. He states that theology is the process of thinking about questions that religion can raise, such as the question as to why people will suffer, fight and die for religion. He then goes onto note the roles that the major religions have had on previous civilisations, certain nations cultures and political systems. Furthermore, he also wrote about how religions can help mould people's thoughts and actions. Professor Ford is therefore taking a liberal attitude to the question as to what theology actually is, as he is using the term theology as a way of showing how religion and "works of God" can influence both people and countries.

Finally, there have been several "definitions" of theology that take a far more critical role. For instance, American revolutionary Thomas Paine wrote "The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing...", and the 19th century philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach claimed that theology was a "web of contradictions and delusions". Whilst they are, of course, entitled to their opinions, it must be noted that these men were famed as atheists, which means that their writings must be treated with a degree of suspicion, as they will be writing with a certain degree of bias.

To conclude, there have been several attempts to give a concrete definition as to what theology is.  Based on the above examples, it would seem that theology is either a study of lies, mistakes and falsehoods, or a study of what God is, how it can affect society as a whole, and where specific beliefs can stem from.