What is “theology”?

THEOLOGY θi'ɑl.ə.dʒi noun The study of God, his nature, and related religious beliefs.

2. One’s religious beliefs and theories, when systematically organized and developed.

[theological θi.ə'lɑ.dʒə.k(ə)l adjective, theologian θi.ə'loʊ.dʒən noun, theologist θi'ɑl.ə.dʒəst noun]

As you can see, theology has two definitions—and I find people mix ’em up all the time.

I talk about theology as Christianity’s collective study of God, and people think I’m talking about their theology, their beliefs about who God is. Or I’ll ask people about their theology, and they’ll respond, “Well it’s not what I believe; it’s what all true Christians believe”—as if other Christians aren’t permitted their own opinions. (Too often, to their minds, we’re not.)

And then there’s how pagans get confused about the word. I talk to them about theology, and they’ll say something like this:

SHE. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don’t do theology.”

ME. “You don’t have beliefs about God?”

SHE. “I do, but I don’t do theology.”

ME. “What do you think theology is?”

SHE. “Dogmas. Doctrines. Whatever you call them. I don’t have those. I don’t do those.”

ME. “Okay. That’s not what I mean by ‘theology.’ Theology is either the study of God, or your own personal beliefs about God. And you do have personal beliefs about God, so you have a theology.”

SHE. “Personal beliefs about God? What, I have a theology and you have a theology?”

ME. “And everybody else has a theology. Which may or may not line up with some church’s doctrines or dogmas.”

SHE. “I don’t think that’s what anybody else means by ‘theology.’ ”

ME. “Check a dictionary. I’m going off the dictionary definition. If people believe ‘theology’ means something else… well that’s their theology.”

You’ll notice this hypothetical pagan is kinda wary about doctrines and dogmas, and it’s because most of the pagans I encounter are the “spiritual, not religious” type—they don’t wanna be told what to believe, and think “theology” is all about doing that.

And okay, figuring out what to believe is indeed the purpose of theology. We’re studying God because every single one of us is wrong about him, and wanna correct that, and are studying God so we can fix our theologies.

There are a number of ways we go about that study. First, we pick a religion. Usually it’s the one we grew up in; I grew up Christian, so I went with Christianity. Sometimes it’s the one we adopt later in life—I didn’t grow up Pentecostal, but I was going to a Pentecostal church, and figured if I was gonna study theology it should be at a Pentecostal seminary, so off I went. (And, as it turned out, all their theology professors were Calvinist, so I wound up learning a ton about Jean Calvin’s theology, which is mighty useful even though I myself am not Calvinist.) For some people they don’t pick a religion; they’re just fascinated by religious anthropology, and try to study them all. In so doing they often become religious: They like one religion better than the others, and become that. But just as often, they remain either theist or agnostic—but appreciative of all religions; or they join a religion which tries to include all the other ones, like the Unitarians or Baha’i.

Next we determine what, in that religion, is authoritative. For some it’s the leadership, or the current heads of the religion. For others there are traditions and scriptures. In Christianity, the current head of our religion is Christ Jesus. (He’s not dead, you know!) We gotta follow him—and there are scriptures containing his teachings; plus the writings of the apostles he trained; plus the prophets who wrote their own God-experiences, provided Jesus his cultural background, and of course foretold him.

And, depending on your sect in that religion, there are various traditions which influence how you understand things. My Pentecostal traditions admittedly, definitely affect how I understand the scriptures. Other traditions—fr’instance a cessationist or dispensationalist—is absolutely gonna spin the scriptures differently than I do, and make it consistent with their traditions. I would argue their traditions are making ’em read the scriptures wrong… and they would argue my traditions are making me read the scriptures wrong. And now you see why we’re in different sects.

Why we study theology.

From time to time I’ll encounter a Christian who really doesn’t understand why they need to bother with theology. Just tell ’em what to believe, and they will!

I can usually blow up that assumption by pointing out, “What if your pastor starts teaching [OFFENSIVE IDEA]?” Oh well then they can’t believe that, and they’ll object, or quit and join another church. Well, I’ll point out, then you’re bothering with theology, ’cause your idea of God conflicts with Pastor’s idea of God. And by objecting or quitting the church, you’re acting upon it. It’s no longer just academic!

Yeah, there are a lot of Christians who just swallow everything our preachers tell us. When I was a kid I made that mistake too; I didn’t yet know to double-check my pastors against the bible. I quickly learned it was necessary, ’cause my pastors were a little sloppy, and made the occasional factual error—they’d mix up Elijah and Elisha, or misquote a bible verse I had memorized, or otherwise make very understandable, very human mistakes. Kids love to fact-check adults, so I had fun with it for a few years. But as I got older, started reading Christian books which my pastors hadn’t, and stumbled across the fact there’s more than one Christian worldview, sometimes my pastors and my favorite authors would have serious disagreements… and I had to figure out which of ’em was correct. And like most immature Christians, I just went with the viewpoint I liked more. Which is exactly how to do theology wrong.

’Cause there’s a lot of wrongness in us! And not just because of our depraved selfish impulses. Before we became Christian—and if you grew up Christian like I did, even after we became Christian—we picked up a whole lot of beliefs and assumptions about God. We didn’t necessarily get ’em from Christianity: We watched movies or TV shows which pitched some clever-sounding ideas about God. Sometimes we accepted ’em—either thoughtfully, or unconsciously. Or we presumed our heavenly Father has gotta somewhat resemble our earthly parents, and based our ideas of God on some rather unhealthy behaviors. Jean Calvin, who grew up under France’s absolute monarchs, imagined God’s sovereignty looked a lot like the despots he knew, and it’s still seriously messing up the way Calvinists view God. And even when we’re getting our God-ideas from fellow Christians, we still have their misbegotten, mistaken ideas, which they’ve not yet caught and purged, which might significantly throw us off track.

True, there are a lot of Christians who never learn what’s in the bible, never read other Christian books (don’t even read anything, really), never listen to other Christian viewpoints. They have no idea where Christians disagree on certain matters, and if they stumble across any actual Christian conflicts of belief, they’ll just presume Pastor is right and everyone else is wrong. (Or presume their favorite political pundits are right and Pastor is wrong—and yikes.) They know nothing, and happily so; now, don’t puncture their bubble of ignorance with theology, of all things!

But of course if you wanna grow your relationship with Jesus, it’s kinda inevitable you’re gonna read more Christian writers, listen to more Christian preachers, and listen to more Christians than just the leaders of your church. You’re gonna stumble across Christian disagreements. You’re gonna wonder which of them is correct, and why—and you’re gonna dig through your bible for proof texts, and hopefully read some commentaries which explain the historical background of those scriptures so you can understand them rightly. And then you’re gonna pick a side. You’re gonna do theology.

Yeah, some of these ideas and disagreements are nothing but pure speculation. Like “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”—that’s one of the more famous, and dumb, theology questions. (Correct answer: They’re spirits. They’re not affected by gravity. They’re not gonna dance on anything, pins included.) Arguing about such issues is a waste of time. Sometimes a fun and entertaining waste of time—but if the argument gets heated, that’s not good!

But some of these disagreements do indeed matter. It matters whether Jesus atones for everyone, or only Christians. It matters whether Jesus is coming back to save the world or destroy it. It matters whether the Holy Spirit still cures the sick or not. These things are gonna affect the ways we follow Jesus—or the ways we really don’t.

And as we look at ’em, we’re gonna discover just where we’re wrong—and here’s our opportunity to fix ourselves. Our duty and responsibility as followers of Jesus is to follow him correctly. So we gotta thoroughly, fearlessly look at our theology, and correct its many, many errors.

Or not, and not grow our relationships with Jesus, and let ’em stagnate. That’s not good either.