Theology has been various defined as the "science of God" or "the study of the nature of God and religious truth." It presents man's knowledge of God in an organized body, including revealed (divine) and human knowledge. Theology has been referred to as "fides quaerens intellectum" or "faith seeking understanding."
Christian theology is based on God's revealed truth and employs the tools of various academic disciplines to enrich it, from history and logic, to hermeneutics (methodology of interpreting the Bible to discover its meaning) and philosophy. In Catholic teaching, the Magisterium of the Church (its teaching authority) guides the believer in understanding revealed truth. In the Protestant traditions, the individual believer is often encouraged to discover the meaning of Scripture based on their own study. Sound Christian theology requires sound Biblical exegesis (process of bringing the meaning of a text to light). Theology is subdivided into categories such as moral theology, Christology (the study of the person of Christ), ecclesiology (the study of the Church), sacramentology (the study of the sacraments), etc. In the first four hundred years of the early Christian community, the Church, which came to be referred to as catholic (the Greek word
katholickos means "universal") after the usage of church fathers like Ignatius of Antioch, struggled to find vocabulary to explain who the person of Christ is and to define the Holy Trinity. This was necessary because of heretical challenges that led the Church to develop a new vocabulary (e.g., the hypostatic union).
Click below to see Ignatius or another Early Church Father:
Ignatius of Antioch
Clement of Rome
The early Church struggled with heretical groups (2 Cor 11:13) who had broken away from the oral teaching of the Apostles (1 John 2: 19; 2 Peter 2). The product featured below explores this subject in greater depth than we can do here. We hope you enjoy exploring the heights and depths of theology. May God bless and keep you!
The Real Jesus in the Creeds and the Councils:
This is one of Dr. Scott Hahn's spiritually rich audio series, in which the popular theologian provides a short course on Christology--the study of the person and natures of Jesus Christ. In this study you will confront the heresies of the early Church and meet the orthodox champions who opposed them, like Athanasius, see the results of Church councils, and gain insight into the Church today. God held nothing back in his self-revelation through Christ. But the Church was not immediately conscious of all the implications, dimensions, and consequences of this revelation. Without adding a thing to the content of doctrine, the Church's understanding has developed, especially when she had to confront what the early Fathers called "the cruel but subtle poison of heresy". Some of the heresies which threatened the early Church included the Arians (who asserted that the Son of God was created, rather than divine), the Nestorians (who denied Mary was the Mother of God,
"theotokos," which naturally led to a denial of Christ's divinity, believing that God only dwelt in Him) and Ceasaro-Papism (Roman emperors, or civil authorities, sought supremacy over the Church). Excellence in apologetics! Sale price for the five tape series is a great value at
$20.00.
|
|
|
|
|
|