Theology, philosophically oriented discipline of religious and apologetic speculation that is traditionally restricted, due to its origins and formats, to Christianity, but which can also cover, due to its themes, other religions, especially including Islam and Judaism. The theology issues include God, humanity, the world, salvation and eschatology (the study of recent times).
The theme of discipline is about several other articles. For a survey of systematic interpretations of the divine or sacred, see agnosticism; atheism; deism; dualism; monotheism; worship of nature; pantheism; polytheism; theism; and totemism. For a survey of important theological concerns within particular religions, see doctrine and dogma. For the treatment of Judeo -Christian theology in the context of other aspects of tradition, see biblical literature; Christendom; Eastern orthodoxy; Judaism; Protestantism; and Roman Catholicism. For a treatment of Islamic theology, see Islam.
Nature of theology
The concept of theology that is applicable as science in all religions and that, therefore, is neutral, is difficult to distill and determine. The problem lies in the fact that, while theology as a concept had its origin in the tradition of the ancient Greeks, obtained their content and method only within Christianity. Therefore, theology, due to its peculiarly Christian profile, is not easily transferable in its limited sense for any other religion. However, in its broader thematic concerns, theology as a subject is relevant to other religions.
The Greek philosopher Plato, with whom the concept emerges for the first time, associated with the term theology a controversial intention, as well as his student Aristotle. For Plato, theology described the mythical, which allowed it can be of temporary pedagogical importance that is beneficial for the State, but must be cleaned from all offensive and abstrusal elements with the help of political legislation. This identification of theology and mythology also remained customary in subsequent Greek thought. In contrast to philosophers, the "theologians" (for example, the Greek poets of the seventeenth century Hesiod and Homer, the oracle cult servants in Delphi and the rhetoricians of the Roman cult of the worship of the emperor) proclaimed him and proclaimed what They what they have seen as divine. Therefore, theology became significant as a means of proclaiming the gods, of confessing and teaching and "preaching" this confession. In this practice of "theology" by the Greeks is the prefiguration of what would later be known as theology in the history of Christianity. In spite of all the contradictions and nuances that would arise in the understanding of this concept in several Christian confessions and schools of thought, a formal criterion remains constant: theology is the attempt of the adherents of a faith to represent their declarations of belief in a way consistent, to explain them outside the base (or foundations) of their faith, and assign such statements their specific place within the context of all other worldly relationships (for example, nature and history) and spiritual processes (for example, reason and logic).
Here, then, the difficulty indicated above becomes evident. First, theology is a spiritual or religious attempt of the "believers" of explaining their faith. In this sense, it is not neutral and is not attempted from the perspective of eliminated observation, in contrast to a general history of religions. The involvement derived from the religious approach is that it does not provide a formal and indifferent scheme devoid of presuppositions within which all religions could be subsumed. Secondly, theology is influenced by its origins in Greek and Christian traditions, with the involvement that the transmutation of this concept to other religions is in danger by the circumstances of origin. If one tries, however, such transmutation, and if there is talk of a theology of primitive religions and a theology of Buddhism, one must be aware of the fact that the concept "theology", which is uncol Spheres, it is applicable only to a very limited degree and in a very modified way. This is because some oriental religions have atheistic qualities and do not provide access to the theos ("God") of theology. If one speaks of theology in religions other than Christianity or Greek religion, it implies, in formal analogy with what has previously been observed, the way in which representatives of other religions understand themselves.
Theology Relationship with the History of Religions and Philosophy
Relationship with the history of religions
If theology explains the way in which the believer understands his faith, or, if faith is not a dominant quality, the way in which the practitioners of a religion understand their religion, this implies that it claims to be normative, even if the statement does not He does, as in Hinduism and Buddhism, culminate in the claim to be absolutely authorized. The normative element in these religions simply arises from the authority of a divine teacher or a revelation (for example, an auditory vision or revelation) or some other type of spiritual encounter as a result of which one feels compromised. The academic study of religion, which also covers religious psychology, religious sociology and the history and phenomenology of religion, as well as the philosophy of religion, has emancipated the normative aspect in favor of a purely empirical analysis. This empirical aspect, which corresponds to the modern conception of science, can only be applied if it works based on objective entities (empirically verifiable). However, the revelation of the type of event that would have to be characterized as transcendent can never be understood as an objective entity. Only those religious life forms that are positive and arise from experience can be objectified. Wherever such forms occur, the religious person is taken as the source of religious phenomena that must be interpreted. Understood in this way, the study of religion represents a necessary step in the secularization process.
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