BYT-01 What Is Theology?

At one time or another, most of us have seen young children build things. Usually, children don’t make elaborate plans. They simply piece things together as seems best at the moment. But when adults build things, like homes or other buildings, they understand how important it is to have a reliable plan and to execute that plan as carefully as possible.

In many ways, the same ought to be true when followers of Christ build their theology. Theology isn’t child’s play. We live, work and worship every day of our lives within the structures that Christian theology provides. And for this reason, it’s important to have a reliable plan and to execute that plan as carefully as possible as we build our Christian theology.

This is the first lesson in our series Building Your Theology. In this series, we’ll explore some of the basic directions we should follow to construct a responsible theology — one that honors God and furthers his purposes for our lives. This lesson is entitled “What is Theology?” Our answer to this question will touch on some essential considerations we must keep in mind as we study and live out Christian theology.

Our lesson will divide into three main parts. First, we’ll look at the definitions of theology. Second, we’ll explore the goals of theology. And third, we’ll touch on the topics of theology. Let’s begin by defining what we mean by the term “theology.”

Christians use the word “theology” so much that you might think we all agree on what it means. But throughout the centuries leading theologians have promoted different concepts of Christian theology. The word itself derives from ancient Greek philosophy before the days of Jesus, but it never appears in the Scriptures. It isn’t found in the Septuagint — the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament — nor does it appear in the New Testament. This is probably because the word “theology” had pagan connotations that were unacceptable to early believers. Even so, Christians began to adopt the term “theology” not long after the time of the New Testament, and it’s become a regular term in our Christian vocabulary today. Of course, throughout the millennia, we’ve understood what it means in different ways. So, it’s important to clarify from the outset the concept of theology that we will follow in this series.