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Augustine of Hippo (354–430), Latin
theologian. His writing on free will
and original sin remains influential in
Western Christendom.
Albert the Great (1193/1206–1280),
patron saint of Roman Catholic
theologians
Theology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theology is the systematic and rational study of concepts of God and of
the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by
completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university,
seminary or school of divinity.
[1]
Contents
1 Definition
2 History of the term
3 Various religions
3.1 Analogous discourses
4 Theology as an academic discipline
4.1 Theology and ministerial training
4.2 Theology as an academic discipline in its own right
4.3 Theology and religious studies
5 Criticism
5.1 Criticism by philosophers
5.2 Critics of theology as an academic discipline
5.3 General criticism
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Definition
Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as "reasoning
or discussion concerning the Deity";
[2]
Richard Hooker defined
"theology" in English as "the science of things divine".
[3]
The term can,
however, be used for a variety of different disciplines or fields of study.
[4]
Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument (philosophical,
ethnographic, historical, spiritual and others) to help understand, explain,
test, critique, defend or promote any of myriad religious topics. Theology
might be undertaken to help the theologian:
understand more truly their own religious tradition,
[5]
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understand more truly another religious tradition,
[6]
make comparisons among religious traditions,
[7]
defend or justify a religious tradition,
facilitate reform of a particular tradition,
[8]
assist in the propagation of a religious tradition,
[9]
or
draw on the resources of a tradition to address some present situation or need,
[10]
draw on the resources of a tradition to explore possible ways of interpreting the world,
[11]
or
explore the nature of divinity without reference to any specific tradition.
challenge (ex. biblical criticism) or oppose (ex. irreligion) a religious tradition or the religious world-view.
History of the term
Theology translates into English from the Greek theologia (θεολογία) which derived from Τheos (Θεός), meaning
"God," and -logia (-λογία),
[12]
meaning "utterances, sayings, or oracles" (a word related to logos [λόγος],
meaning "word, discourse, account, or reasoning") which had passed into Latin as theologia and into French as
théologie. The English equivalent "theology" (Theologie, Teologye) had evolved by 1362.
[13]
The sense the word
has in English depends in large part on the sense the Latin and Greek equivalents had acquired in Patristic and
medieval Christian usage, though the English term has now spread beyond Christian contexts.
Greek theologia (θεολογία) was used with the meaning "discourse on god" in the fourth century BC by
Plato in The Republic, Book ii, Ch. 18.
[14]
Aristotle divided theoretical philosophy into mathematike,
physike and theologike, with the latter corresponding roughly to metaphysics, which, for Aristotle, included
discourse on the nature of the divine.
[15]
Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of such discourse: mythical
(concerning the myths of the Greek gods), rational (philosophical analysis of the gods and of cosmology) and
civil (concerning the rites and duties of public religious observance).
[16]
Theologos, closely related to theologia, appears once in some biblical manuscripts, in the heading to the
book of Revelation: apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy, "the revelation of John the theologos." There,
however, the word refers not to John the "theologian" in the modern English sense of the word but—using a
slightly different sense of the root logos, meaning not "rational discourse" but "word" or "message"—one who
speaks the words of God, logoi toy theoy.
[17]
Some Latin Christian authors, such as Tertullian and Augustine, followed Varro's threefold usage,
[18]
though
Augustine also used the term more simply to mean 'reasoning or discussion concerning the deity'
[2]
In Patristic Greek Christian sources, theologia could refer narrowly to devout and inspired knowledge of,
and teaching about, the essential nature of God.
[19]
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In some medieval Greek and Latin sources, theologia (in the sense of "an account or record of the ways of
God") could refer simply to the Bible.
[20]
The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to denote a subdivision of
philosophy as a subject of academic study, dealing with the motionless, incorporeal reality (as opposed to
physica, which deals with corporeal, moving realities).
[21]
Boethius' definition influenced medieval Latin
usage.
[22]
In scholastic Latin sources, the term came to denote the rational study of the doctrines of the Christian
religion, or (more precisely) the academic discipline which investigated the coherence and implications of the
language and claims of the Bible and of the theological tradition (the latter often as represented in Peter
Lombard's Sentences, a book of extracts from the Church Fathers).
[23]
In the Renaissance, especially with Florentine Platonist apologists of Dante's poetics, the distinction between
"poetic theology" (theologia poetica) and "revealed" or Biblical theology serves as steppingstone for a
revival of philosophy as independent of theological authority.
It is in this last sense, theology as an academic discipline involving rational study of Christian teaching, that the
term passed into English in the fourteenth century,
[24]
though it could also be used in the narrower sense
found in Boethius and the Greek patristic authors, to mean rational study of the essential nature of God – a
discourse now sometimes called Theology Proper.
[25]
From the 17th century onwards, it also became possible to use the term 'theology' to refer to study of
religious ideas and teachings that are not specifically Christian (e.g., in the phrase 'Natural Theology' which
denoted theology based on reasoning from natural facts independent of specifically Christian revelation
[26]
),
or that are specific to another religion (see below).
"Theology" can also now be used in a derived sense to mean "a system of theoretical principles; an
(impractical or rigid) ideology."
[27]
Various religions
It is seen by some to be a term only appropriate to the study of religions that worship a deity (a theos), and to
presuppose belief in the ability to speak and reason about this deity (in logia)—and so to be less appropriate in
religious contexts that are organized differently (religions without a deity, or that deny that such subjects can be
studied logically). ("Hierology" has been proposed as an alternative, more generic term.
[28]
)
Analogous discourses
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Some academic inquiries within Buddhism, dedicated to the rational investigation of a Buddhist understanding of the
world, prefer the designation Buddhist philosophy to the term Buddhist theology, since Buddhism lacks the same
conception of a theos. Jose Ignacio Cabezon, who argues that the use of "theology" is appropriate, can only do so,
he says, because "I take theology not to be restricted to discourse on God ... I take 'theology' not to be restricted
to its etymological meaning. In that latter sense, Buddhism is of course atheological, rejecting as it does the notion
of God."
[29]
Within Hindu philosophy, there is a solid and ancient tradition of philosophical speculation on the nature of the
universe, of God (termed "Brahman", Paramatma and Bhagavan in some schools of Hindu thought) and of the
Atman (soul). The Sanskrit word for the various schools of Hindu philosophy is Darshana (meaning "view" or
"viewpoint"). Vaishnava theology has been a subject of study for many devotees, philosophers and scholars in India
for centuries, and in recent decades also has been taken on by a number of academic institutions in Europe, such as
the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Bhaktivedanta College.
[30]
See also: Krishnology
Islamic theological discussion that parallels Christian theological discussion is named "Kalam"; the Islamic analogue
of Christian theological discussion would more properly be the investigation and elaboration of Islamic law, or
"Fiqh". "Kalam ... does not hold the leading place in Muslim thought that theology does in Christianity. To find an
equivalent for 'theology' in the Christian sense it is necessary to have recourse to several disciplines, and to the usul
al-fiqh as much as to kalam." (L. Gardet)
[31]
In Judaism, the historical absence of political authority has meant that most theological reflection has happened
within the context of the Jewish community and synagogue, rather than within specialized academic institutions.
Nevertheless, Jewish theology historically has been very active and highly significant for Christian and Islamic
theology. It is sometimes claimed, however, that the Jewish analogue of Christian theological discussion would more
properly be Rabbinical discussion of Jewish law and Jewish Biblical commentaries.
[32]
Theology as an academic discipline
The history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as old as the history of such institutions
themselves. For instance, Taxila was an early centre of Vedic learning, possible from the 6th century BC or
earlier;
[33]
the Platonic Academy founded in Athens in the 4th century BC seems to have included theological
themes in its subject matter;
[34]
the Chinese Taixue delivered Confucian teaching from the 2nd century BC;
[35]
the
School of Nisibis was a centre of Christian learning from the 4th century AD;
[36]
Nalanda in India was a site of
Buddhist higher learning from at least the 5th or 6th century AD;
[37]
and the Moroccan University of Al-Karaouine
was a centre of Islamic learning from the 10th century,
[38]
as was Al-Azhar University in Cairo.
[39]
Modern Western universities evolved from the monastic institutions and (especially) cathedral schools of Western
Europe during the High Middle Ages (see, for instance, the University of Bologna, Paris University and Oxford
University).
[40]
From the beginning, Christian theological learning was therefore a central component in these
institutions, as was the study of Church or Canon law: universities played an important role in training people for
ecclesiastical offices, in helping the church pursue the clarification and defence of its teaching, and in supporting the
legal rights of the church over against secular rulers.
[41]
At such universities, theological study was initially closely
tied to the life of faith and of the church: it fed, and was fed by, practices of preaching, prayer and celebration of the
Mass.
[42]
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During the High Middle Ages, theology was therefore the ultimate subject at universities, being named "The Queen
of the Sciences" and serving as the capstone to the Trivium and Quadrivium that young men were expected to
study. This meant that the other subjects (including Philosophy) existed primarily to help with theological thought.
[43]
Christian theology’s preeminent place in the university began to be challenged during the European Enlightenment,
especially in Germany.
[44]
Other subjects gained in independence and prestige, and questions were raised about the
place in institutions that were increasingly understood to be devoted to independent reason of a discipline that
seemed to involve commitment to the authority of particular religious traditions.
[45]
Since the early nineteenth century, various different approaches have emerged in the West to theology as an
academic discipline. Much of the debate concerning theology's place in the university or within a general higher
education curriculum centres on whether theology's methods are appropriately theoretical and (broadly speaking)
scientific or, on the other hand, whether theology requires a pre-commitment of faith by its practitioners, and
whether such a commitment conflicts with academic freedom.
[46]
Theology and ministerial training
In some contexts, theology has been held to belong in institutions of higher education primarily as a form of
professional training for Christian ministry. This was the basis on which Friedrich Schleiermacher, a liberal
theologian, argued for the inclusion of theology in the new University of Berlin in 1810.
[47]
For instance, in Germany, theological faculties at state universities are typically tied to particular denominations,
Protestant or Roman Catholic, and those faculties will offer denominationally bound (konfessionsgebunden)
degrees, and have denominationally bound public posts amongst their faculty; as well as contributing ‘to the
development and growth of Christian knowledge’ they ‘provide the academic training for the future clergy and
teachers of religious instruction at German schools.’
[48]
In the United States, several prominent colleges and universities were started in order to train Christian ministers.
Harvard,
[49]
Georgetown University,
[50]
Boston University,
[51]
Yale,
[52]
and Princeton
[53]
all had the theological
training of clergy as a primary purpose at their foundation.
Seminaries and bible colleges have continued this alliance between the academic study of theology and training for
Christian ministry. There are, for instance, numerous prominent US examples, including Catholic Theological Union
in Chicago,
[54]
The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley,
[55]
Criswell College in Dallas,
[56]
The Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,
[57]
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois,
[58]
Dallas
Theological Seminary,
[59]
and The Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri.
Theology as an academic discipline in its own right
In some contexts, scholars pusue theology as an academic discipline without formal affiliation to any particular
church (though individual members of staff may well have affiliations to different churches), and without focussing on
ministerial training. This applies, for instance, to many university departments in the United Kingdom, including the
Faculties of Divinity at the University of Cambridge and University of Oxford, the Department of Theology and
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Religion at the University of Exeter, and the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of
Leeds.
[60]
Traditional academic prizes, such as the University of Aberdeen's Lumsden and Sachs Fellowship, tend
to acknowledge performance in theology (or divinity as it is known at Aberdeen) and in religious studies.
Theology and religious studies
In some contemporary contexts, a distinction is made between theology, which is seen as involving some level of
commitment to the claims of the religious tradition being studied, and religious studies. By contrast religious studies
is normally seen as requiring that the question of the truth or falsehood of the religious traditions studied is kept
outside its field. Religious studies involves the study of the historical or contemporary practices or ideas those
traditions using intellectual tools and frameworks that are not themselves specifically tied to any religious tradition,
and that are normally understood to be neutral or secular.
[61]
In contexts where 'religious studies' in this sense is the
focus, the primary forms of study are likely to include:
Anthropology of religion
Comparative religion
History of religions
Philosophy of religion
Psychology of religion
Sociology of religion
Theology and religious studies are sometimes seen as being in tension;
[62]
they are sometimes held to coexist
without serious tension;
[63]
and it is sometimes denied that there is as clear a boundary between them as the brief
description here suggests.
[64]
Criticism
There is an ancient tradition of skepticism about theology, followed by a more modern rise in secularist and atheist
criticism.
Criticism by philosophers
Whether or not reasoned discussion about the divine is possible has long been a point of contention.
Protagoras, as early as the fifth century BC, who is reputed to have been exiled from Athens because of his
agnosticism about the existence of the gods, said that "Concerning the gods I cannot know either that they exist or
that they do not exist, or what form they might have, for there is much to prevent one's knowing: the obscurity of
the subject and the shortness of man's life."
[65]
Lord Bolingbroke, an English politician and political philosopher wrote in his political works his views on theology,
"Theology is in fault not religion. Theology is a science that may justly be compared to the Box of Pandora. Many
good things lie uppermost in it; but many evil lie under them, and scatter plagues and desolation throughout the
world."
[66]
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Thomas Paine the American revolutionary, wrote in his two part work The Age of Reason, "The study of theology,
as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it
proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion. Not anything
can be studied as a science, without our being in possession of the principles upon which it is founded; and as this is
the case with Christian theology, it is therefore the study of nothing."
[67]
Ludwig Feuerbach, the atheist philosopher sought to dissolve theology in his work Principles of the Philosophy of
the Future: "The task of the modern era was the realization and humanization of God – the transformation and
dissolution of theology into anthropology."
[68]
This mirrored his earlier work The Essence of Christianity (pub.
1841), for which he was banned from teaching in Germany, in which he had said that theology was a "web of
contradictions and delusions".
[69]
A.J. Ayer the former logical-positivist, sought to show in his essay "Critique of Ethics and Theology" that all
statements about the divine are nonsensical and any divine-attribute is unprovable. He wrote: "It is now generally
admitted, at any rate by philosophers, that the existence of a being having the attributes which define the god of any
non-animistic religion cannot be demonstratively proved... [A]ll utterances about the nature of God are
nonsensical."
[70]
Walter Kaufmann the philosopher, in his essay "Against Theology", sought to differentiate theology from religion in
general. "Theology, of course, is not religion; and a great deal of religion is emphatically anti-theological... An attack
on theology, therefore, should not be taken as necessarily involving an attack on religion. Religion can be, and often
has been, untheological or even anti-theological." However, Kaufmann found that "Christianity is inescapably a
theological religion".
[71]
Critics of theology as an academic discipline
Critics dating back to the 18th century have questioned the suitability of theology as an academic discipline and in
the 21st century criticism continues.
[72]
Jerry Coyne considers theology to be "beliefs that have no basis in fact", suggests that theologians are deliberately
obscure and baffling, and queries how they know reality corresponds to what they say and how they know they
personally are closer to understanding reality than other theologians. He feels theology confuses ordinary people.
[73]
Richard Dawkins, an outspoken member of the New Atheism movement, believes that theology is not a suitable
subject for a university because it is not scientific, saying that "a positive case now needs to be made that it has any
real content at all, and that it has any place in today's universities."
[74]
Science enabled spectacular achievements
ranging from space exploration through to development of vaccines and other life saving treatments for infections
while, in Dawkins' opinion, theology has achieved nothing.
[75]
General criticism
Charles Bradlaugh believed theology prevented human beings achieving liberty.
[76]
Bradlaugh noted theologians of
his time stated that modern scientific research contradicted sacred scriptures therefore the scriptures must be
wrong.
[77]
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Robert G. Ingersoll stated that when theologians had power the majority of people lived in hovels while a privileged
few had palaces and cathedrals. In Ingersoll's opinion science rather than theology improved people's lives.
Ingersoll maintained further that trained theologians reason no better than a person who assumes the devil must exist
because pictures resemble the devil so exactly.
[78]
Mark Twain stated that several mutually incompatible religions claimed to be the True Religion and that people cut
each the throats of others for following a different theology.
[79]
See also
Outline of theology
References
1. ^ "theology" (http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?
o2=&o0=1&o7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&s=theology&h=000&j=0#c). Wordnetweb.princeton.edu.
Retrieved 2012-11-11.
2. ^
a

b
City of God Book VIII. i. (http://logicmuseum.googlepages.com/civitate-8.htm) "de divinitate rationem sive
sermonem"
3. ^ "''Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity'', 3.8.11" (http://anglicanhistory.org/hooker/3/368-377.pdf) (PDF).
Retrieved 2012-11-11.
4. ^ McGrath, Alister. 1998. Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought. Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers. pp. 1–8.
5. ^ See, e.g., Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology 2nd ed.
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004)
6. ^ See, e.g., Michael S. Kogan, 'Toward a Jewish Theology of Christianity' in The Journal of Ecumenical Studies
32.1 (Winter 1995), 89–106; available online at [1] (http://www.icjs.org/scholars/kogan.html)
7. ^ See, e.g., David Burrell, Freedom and Creation in Three Traditions (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press, 1994)
8. ^ See, e.g., John Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die (New York: Harper Collins, 2001)
9. ^ See, e.g., Duncan Dormor et al (eds), Anglicanism, the Answer to Modernity (London: Continuum, 2003)
10. ^ See, e.g., Timothy Gorringe, Crime, Changing Society and the Churches Series (London:SPCK, 2004)
11. ^ See e.g., Anne Hunt Overzee's gloss upon the view of Ricœur (1913–2005) as to the role and work of
'theologian': "Paul Ricœur speaks of the theologian as a hermeneut, whose task is to interpret the multivalent, rich
metaphors arising from the symbolic bases of tradition so that the symbols may 'speak' once again to our
existential situation." Anne Hunt Overzee The body divine: the symbol of the body in the works of Teilhard de
Chardin and Rāmānuja, Cambridge studies in religious traditions 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1992), ISBN 0-521-38516-4, ISBN 978-0-521-38516-9, p.4; Source: [2] (http://books.google.com.au/books?
id=EiYEktsURVAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f=false)
(accessed: Monday 5 April 2010)
12. ^ The accusative plural of the neuter noun λόγιον; cf. Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich,
Frederick W. Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 2nd ed., (Chicago and London: University
6/30/2014 Theology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Frederick W. Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 2nd ed., (Chicago and London: University
of Chicago Press, 1979), 476. For examples of λόγια in the New Testament, cf. Acts 7:38; Romans 3:2; 1 Peter
4:11.
13. ^ Langland, Piers Plowman A ix 136
14. ^ Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon' (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?
doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057;query=entry%3D%2348216;layout=;loc=qeolo%2Fgia1)'.
15. ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book Epsilon.
(http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/mirror/classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.6.vi.html)
16. ^ As cited by Augustine, City of God, Book 6 (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120106.htm), ch.5.
17. ^ This title appears quite late in the manuscript tradition for the Book of Revelation: the two earliest citations
provided in David Aune's Word Biblical Commentary 52: Revelation 1–5 (Dallas: Word Books, 1997) are both
11th century – Gregory 325/Hoskier 9 and Gregory 1006/Hoskier 215; the title was however in circulation by the
6th century – see Allen Brent ‘John as theologos: the imperial mysteries and the Apocalypse’, Journal for the Study
of the New Testament 75 (1999), 87–102.
18. ^ See Augustine, City of God, Book 6 (http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120106.htm), ch.5. and Tertullian, Ad
Nationes, Book 2 (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.iv.viii.ii.i.html), ch.1.
19. ^ Gregory of Nazianzus uses the word in this sense in his fourth-century Theological Orations
(http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-07/Npnf2-07-42.htm#P4178_1277213); after his death, he was called "the
Theologian" at the Council of Chalcedon and thereafter in Eastern Orthodoxy—either because his Orationswere
seen as crucial examples of this kind of theology, or in the sense that he was (like the author of the Book of
Revelation) seen as one who was an inspired preacher of the words of God. (It is unlikely to mean, as claimed in
the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-07/Npnf2-07-41.htm#P4162_1255901)
introduction to his Theological Orations, that he was a defender of the divinity of Christ the Word.) See John
McGukin, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press,
2001), p.278.
20. ^ Hugh of St. Victor, Commentariorum in Hierarchiam Coelestem, Expositio to Book 9: "theologia, id est, divina
Scriptura" (in Migne's Patrologia Latina vol.175, 1091C).
21. ^ "Boethius, On the Holy Trinity" (http://pvspade.com/Logic/docs/BoethiusDeTrin.pdf) (PDF). Retrieved 2012-11-
11.
22. ^ G.R. Evans, Old Arts and New Theology: The Beginnings of Theology as an Academic Discipline (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1980), 31–32.
23. ^ See the title of Peter Abelard's Theologia Christiana
(http://individual.utoronto.ca/pking/resources/abelard/Theologia_christiana.txt), and, perhaps most famously, of
Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica
24. ^ See the 'note' in the Oxford English Dictionary entry for 'theology'.
25. ^ See, for example, Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 1, part 1 (1871).
26. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, sense 1
27. ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1989 edition, 'Theology' sense 1(d), and 'Theological' sense A.3; the earliest
reference given is from the 1959 Times Literary Supplement 5 June 329/4: "The 'theological' approach to Soviet
Marxism ... proves in the long run unsatisfactory."
28. ^ E.g., by Count E. Goblet d'Alviella in 1908; see Alan H. Jones, Independence and Exegesis: The Study of Early
Christianity in the Work of Alfred Loisy (1857–1940), Charles Guignebert (1857 [i.e. 1867]–1939), and Maurice
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Goguel (1880–1955) (Mohr Siebeck, 1983), p.194.
29. ^ Jose Ignacio Cabezon, 'Buddhist Theology in the Academy' in Roger Jackson and John J. Makransky's Buddhist
Theology: Critical Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 25–52.
30. ^ See Anna S. King, 'For Love of Krishna: Forty Years of Chanting' in Graham Dwyer and Richard J. Cole, The
Hare Krishna Movement: Forty Years of Chant and Change (London/New York: I.B. Tauris, 2006), pp. 134–167:
p. 163, which describes developments in both institutions, and speaks of Hare Krishna devotees 'studying
Vaishnava theology and practice in mainstream universities.'
31. ^ L. Gardet, 'Ilm al-kalam (http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ei2/kalam.htm)' in The Encyclopedia of Islam, ed.
P.J. Bearman et al (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1999).
32. ^ Randi Rashkover, 'A Call for Jewish Theology'
(http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2096/is_4_49/ai_58621576), Crosscurrents, Winter 1999, starts by saying,
"Frequently the claim is made that, unlike Christianity, Judaism is a tradition of deeds and maintains no strict
theological tradition. Judaism's fundamental beliefs are inextricable from their halakhic observance (that set of laws
revealed to Jews by God), embedded and presupposed by that way of life as it is lived and learned."
33. ^ Timothy Reagan, Non-Western Educational Traditions: Alternative Approaches to Educational Thought and
Practice, 3rd edition (Lawrence Erlbaum: 2004), p.185 and Sunna Chitnis, 'Higher Education' in Veena Das (ed),
The Oxford India Companion to Sociology and Social Anthropology (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003),
pp. 1032–1056: p.1036 suggest an early date; a more cautious appraisal is given in Hartmut Scharfe, Education in
Ancient India (Leiden: Brill, 2002), pp. 140–142.
34. ^ John Dillon, The Heirs of Plato: A Study in the Old Academy, 347–274BC (Oxford: OUP, 2003)
35. ^ Xinzhong Yao, An Introduction to Confucianism (Cambridge: CUP, 2000), p.50.
36. ^ Adam H. Becker, The Fear of God and the Beginning of Wisdom: The School of Nisibis and the Development of
Scholastic Culture in Late Antique Mesopotamia (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006); see also The School of
Nisibis (http://www.nestorian.org/the_school_of_nisibis.html) at Nestorian.org
37. ^ Hartmut Scharfe, Education in Ancient India (Leiden: Brill, 2002), p.149.
38. ^ The Al-Qarawiyyin mosque was founded in 859 AD, but 'While instruction at the mosque must have begun
almost from the beginning, it is only ... by the end of the tenth-century that its reputation as a center of learning in
both religious and secular sciences ... must have begun to wax.' Y. G-M. Lulat, A History of African Higher
Education from Antiquity to the Present: A Critical Synthesis (Greenwood, 2005), p.71
39. ^ Andrew Beattie, Cairo: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), p.101.
40. ^ Walter Rüegg, A History of the University in Europe, vol.1, ed. H. de Ridder-Symoens, Universities in the
Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
41. ^ Walter Rüegg, “Themes” in Walter Rüegg, A History of the University in Europe, vol.1, ed. H. de Ridder-
Symoens, Universities in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 3–34: pp. 15–16.
42. ^ See Gavin D'Costa, Theology in the Public Square: Church, Academy and Nation (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005),
ch.1.
43. ^ Thomas Albert Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2006), p.56: '[P]hilosophy, the scientia scientarum in one sense, was, in another,
portrayed as the humble "handmaid of theology".'
44. ^ See Thomas Albert Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2006):
45. ^ See Thomas Albert Howard’s work already cited, and his discussion of, for instance, Immanuel Kant’s Conflict
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45. ^ See Thomas Albert Howard’s work already cited, and his discussion of, for instance, Immanuel Kant’s Conflict
of the Faculties (1798), and J.G. Fichte’s Deduzierter Plan einer zu Berlin errichtenden höheren Lehranstalt
(1807).
46. ^ See Thomas Albert Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2006); Hans W. Frei, Types of Christian Theology, ed. William C. Placher and George
Hunsinger (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992); Gavin D'Costa, Theology in the Public Square: Church,
Academy and Nation (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005); James W. McClendon, Systematic Theology 3: Witness (Nashville,
TN: Abingdon, 2000), ch.10: 'Theology and the University'.
47. ^ Friedrich Schleiermacher, Brief Outline of Theology as a Field of Study, 2nd edition, tr. Terrence N. Tice
(Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1990); Thomas Albert Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern
German University (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), ch.14.
48. ^ Reinhard G. Kratz, 'Academic Theology in Germany', Religion 32.2 (2002): pp.113–116.
49. ^ 'The primary purpose of Harvard College was, accordingly, the training of clergy.’ But ‘the school served a dual
purpose, training men for other professions as well.’ George M. Marsden, The Soul of the American University:
From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p.41.
50. ^ Georgetown was a Jesuit institution founded in significant part to provide a pool of educated Catholics some of
whom who could go on to full seminary training for the priesthood. See Robert Emmett Curran, Leo J.
O’Donovan, The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University 1789–1889
(Georgetown: Georgetown University Press, 1961), Part One.
51. ^ Boston University emerged from the Boston School of Theology, a Methodist seminary. Boston University
Information Center, 'History – The Early Years' [3] (http://www.bu.edu/dbin/infocenter/content/index.php?
pageid=923&topicid=13)
52. ^ Yale’s original 1701 charter speaks of the purpose being 'Sincere Regard & Zeal for upholding & Propagating of
the Christian Protestant Religion by a succession of Learned & Orthodox' and that 'Youth may be instructed in the
Arts and Sciences (and) through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in
Church and Civil State.' 'The Charter of the Collegiate School, October 1701' in Franklin Bowditch Dexter,
Documentary History of Yale University, Under the Original Charter of the Collegiate School of Connecticut
1701–1745 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1916); available online at [4]
(http://www.archive.org/stream/documentaryhisto00dextrich)
53. ^ At Princeton, one of the founders (probably Ebeneezer Pemberton) wrote in c.1750, ‘Though our great Intention
was to erect a seminary for educating Ministers of the Gospel, yet we hope it will be useful in other learned
professions – Ornaments of the State as Well as the Church. Therefore we propose to make the plan of Education
as extensive as our Circumstances will admit.’ Quoted in Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion
(http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/founding_princeton.html) (Princeton University Press,
1978).
54. ^ See 'The CTU Story' (http://www.ctu.edu/about/ctu-story) at Catholic Theological Union website (Retrieved 16
March 2013): 'lay men and women, religious sisters and brothers, and seminarians have studied alongside one
another, preparing to serve God’s people.'
55. ^ See 'About the GTU' (http://www.gtu.edu/about) at The Graduate Theological Union website (Retrieved 29
August 2009): 'dedicated to educating students for teaching, research, ministry, and service.'
56. ^ See 'About Us' (http://www.criswell.edu/news--events/about-us/) at the Criswell College website (Retrieved 29
August 2009): 'Criswell College exists to serve the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ by developing God-called
men and women in the Word (intellectually and academically) and by the Word (professionally and spiritually) for
6/30/2014 Theology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theology 12/13
men and women in the Word (intellectually and academically) and by the Word (professionally and spiritually) for
authentic ministry leadership.'
57. ^ See the 'Mission Statement' (http://www.sbts.edu/about/truth/mission/) at the SBTS website (Retrieved 29
August 2009): 'the mission of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is ... to be a servant of the churches of
the Southern Baptist Convention by training, educating, and preparing ministers of the gospel for more faithful
service.'
58. ^ See 'About Trinity Evangelical Divinity School' (http://www.tiu.edu/divinity/connect/whoarewe/) at their website
(Retrieved 29 August 2009): 'Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) is a learning community dedicated to the
development of servant leaders for the global church, leaders who are spiritually, biblically, and theologically
prepared to engage contemporary culture for the sake of Christ's kingdom.'
59. ^ See 'About DTS' (http://www.dts.edu/about/) at the Dallas Theological Seminary website (Retrieved 29 August
2009): 'At Dallas, the scholarly study of biblical and related subjects is inseparably fused with the cultivation of the
spiritual life. All this is designed to prepare students to communicate the Word of God in the power of the Spirit of
God.'
60. ^ See the 'Why Study Theology?' (http://huss.exeter.ac.uk/theology/undergrad/) page at the University of Exeter
(Retrieved 1 September 2009), and the 'About us' (http://www.leeds.ac.uk//trs/aboutus.htm) page at the University
of Leeds.
61. ^ See, for example, Donald Wiebe, The Politics of Religious Studies: The Continuing Conflict with Theology in
the Academy (New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2000).
62. ^ See K.L. Knoll, 'The Ethics of Being a Theologian' (http://chronicle.com/article/The-Ethics-of-Being-a/47442/?
utm_source=at&utm_medium=en), Chronicle of Higher Education, 27 July 2009.
63. ^ See David Ford, 'Theology and Religious Studies for a Multifaith and Secular Society' in D.L. Bird and Simon G.
Smith (eds), Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education (London: Continuum, 2009).
64. ^ Timothy Fitzgerald, The Ideology of Religious Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).
65. ^ Protagoras, fr.4, from On the Gods, tr. Michael J. O'Brien in The Older Sophists, ed. Rosamund Kent Sprague
(Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1972), 20, emphasis added. Cf. Carol Poster, "Protagoras (fl. 5th
C. BCE)" (http://www.iep.utm.edu/protagor/) in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; accessed: 6 October
2008.
66. ^ The philosophical works of Lord Bolingbroke (http://books.google.com/books?
id=w25JAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA396&lpg=PA396&dq=theology+is+the+box+of+pandora+bolingbroke&source=bl&ot
s=qhYZzpliQS&sig=k5bTM79761fMV0JqzqYFqwuz6ng&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jJ4hUa05geryBN6EgcgI&ved=0CD0Q
6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=theology%20is%20the%20box%20of%20pandora%20bolingbroke&f=false) Volume 3,
p. 396
67. ^ Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, from "The Life and Major Writings of Thomas Paine", ed. Philip S. Foner,
(New York, The Citadel Press, 1945) p. 601.
68. ^ Ludwig Feuerbach, Principles of the Philosophy of the Future, trans. Manfred H. Vogel, (Indianapolis, Hackett
Publishing Company, 1986) p5
69. ^ Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity, trans. George Eliot, (Amherst, New York, Prometheus Books,
1989) Preface, XVI.
70. ^ A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, (New York, Dover Publications, 1936) pp. 114–115.
71. ^ Walter Kaufmann, The Faith of a Heretic, (Garden City, New York, Anchor Books, 1963) pp. 114, 127–128,
130.
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External links
"Theology" (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/590855/theology) on Encyclopædia Britannica
http://www3.oup.co.uk/theolj
http://www.theology.ie
http://www.utoronto.ca/stmikes/theobook.htm
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Theology&oldid=614783213"
Categories: Theology Religion and science
This page was last modified on 28 June 2014 at 17:23.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark
of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.
72. ^ Gerard Loughlin. "Theology in the university" (http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?
id=ccol9780521871860_CCOL9780521871860A011). Cco.cambridge.org. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
73. ^ Why am I reading theology? (http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/642023-why-am-i-reading-theology)
74. ^ "Letters: Theology has no place in a university" (http://richarddawkins.net/articles/1698). Richarddawkins.net.
2007-09-30. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
75. ^ "The Emptiness of Theology" (http://richarddawkins.net/articles/88-the-emptiness-of-theology).
Richarddawkins.net. 2006-05-10. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
76. ^ "Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891)" (http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/bradlaugh.htm).
Positiveatheism.org. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
77. ^ "Humanity's Gain from Unbelief" (http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/bradlo01.htm). Positiveatheism.org.
Retrieved 2012-11-11.
78. ^ "Robert Green Ingersoll" (http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/ingersoll.htm). Positiveatheism.org. 1954-
08-11. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
79. ^ "Directory of Mark Twain's maxims, quotations, and various opinions"
(http://www.twainquotes.com/Religion.html). Twainquotes.com. 1902-11-28. Retrieved 2012-11-11.

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