Systematic Theology
Since it is a systemic approach, systematic theology organizes truth under different headings[1] and there are ten basic areas (or categories), although the exact list may vary slightly. These are:
- Theology proper – The study of the character of God
- Angelology – The study of angels
- Biblical theology – The study of the Bible
- Christology – The study of Christ
- Ecclesiology – The study of the church
- Eschatology – The study of the end times[5]
- Hamartiology – The study of sin
- Pneumatology – The study of the Holy Spirit
- Soteriology – The study of salvation
- Theological anthropology – The study of the nature of humanity.
Biblical Theology
In evangelicalism biblical theology is a discipline of theology which emphasises the progressive nature of biblical revelation. Graeme Goldsworthy explains the relationship between biblical theology and systematic theology as follows:
Biblical theology, as defined here, is dynamic not static. That is, it follows the movement and process of God’s revelation in the Bible. It is closely related to systematic theology (the two are dependent upon one another), but there is a difference in emphasis. Biblical theology is not concerned to state the final doctrines which go to make up the content of Christian belief, but rather to describe the process by which revelation unfolds and moves toward the goal which is God’s final revelation of his purposes in Jesus Christ. Biblical theology seeks to understand the relationships between the various eras in God’s revealing activity recorded in the Bible. The systematic theologian is mainly interested in the finished article – the statement of Christian doctrine. The biblical theologian on the other hand is concerned rather with the progressive unfolding of truth. It is on the basis of biblical theology that the systematic theologian draws upon the pre-Pentecost texts of the Bible as part of the material from which Christiandoctrine may be formulated.[6]
The work of Gregory Beale, Kevin Vanhoozer, Geerhardus Vos (Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments), Herman Nicolaas Ridderbos (The Coming of the Kingdom), Meredith Kline (Kingdom Prologue), Graeme Goldsworthy (According to Plan, Gospel and Kingdom), Vaughan Roberts (God’s Big Picture), James Hamilton (God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment), and Peter Gentry and Stephen Wellum (Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants)[7] have helped popularize this approach to the Bible.[8]Especially important for bringing this field of study into the confessional tradition was Old Princeton theologian, Geerhardus Vos (Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments).[9] They summarize the message of the Bible as being about “God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing” (in Graeme Goldsworthy, Gospel and Kingdom, Paternoster, 1981).
Practical Theology
Practical theology is an academic discipline that examines and reflects on religious practices in order to understand the theology enacted in those practices and in order to consider how theological theory and theological practices can be more fully aligned, changed, or improved. Practical theology has often sought to address a perceived disconnection between dogmatics or theology as an academic discipline on the one hand, and the life and practice of the church on the other.[1]
As articulated by Richard Osmer, the four key tasks or questions to be asked by practical theology are:
- What is going on? (the descriptive-empirical task)
- Why is this going on? (the interpretative task)
- What ought to be going on? (the normative task)
- How might we respond? (the pragmatic task)[2]
DefinitionEdit
Gerben Heitink defines practical theology as “the empirically oriented theological theory of the mediation of the Christian faith in the praxis of modern society.” Practical theology consists of several related sub-fields: applied theology (such as missions, evangelism, religious education, pastoral psychology or the psychology of religion), church growth, administration, homiletics, spiritual formation, pastoral theology, spiritual direction, spiritual theology (or ascetical theology), political theology, theology of justice and peace and similar areas.[3]
Ray Anderson writes that the first person to give practical theology a definition, C.I. Nitzch, defined it as the “theory of the church’s practice of Christianity.” Anderson quotes John Swinton as defining practical theology as “critical reflection on the actions of the church in light of the gospel and Christian Tradition.”[4]Swinton cites Don Browning’s definition of practical theology as “the reflective process which the church pursues in its efforts to articulate the theological grounds of practical living in a variety of areas such as work, sexuality, marriage, youth, aging, and death.”[5]
Note: All definitions taken from Wikipedia
