Thanks. The expression rational theology is quite nice and I have been
tempted to use it but it is already used by Mormons in a too much a
priori "christian" frame.
http://www.lds-mormon.com/widtsoe.shtml
But if a adjective should be added to "theology" I think I would use
"lobian" perhaps. But not in a title. Machine theology is better,
although superficially (pregodelian) contradictory.
Bruno
Le 12-janv.-06, à 20:22, Benjamin Udell a écrit :
Bruno, list,
It occurred to me that I ought not merely to "wing it" on the meaning
of "theology" as a word. There are various places online to look it
up, but this is an interesting one and, anyway, some may find this to
be an introduction to a good resource.
From the Century Dictionary http://www.global-language.com/century/
(About the really rather useful Century Dictionary:
http://www.leoyan.com/century-dictionary.com/why.php )
(Requires installing software) Century Dictionary, Vol. VIII, Page
6274, Theologus to Theorbo (DjVu)
http://www.leoyan.com/century-dictionary.com/08/index08.djvu?
djvuopts&page=66 ,
(DjVu Highlighted), (Java) (JPEG)
theology (the¯-ol' o¯-ji), n. [< ME. theologie, < OF. theologie, F.
théologie = Pr. teologia = Sp. teología = Pg. theologia = It. teologia
= D. G. theologie = Sw. Dan. teologi, < LL. theologia, < Gr.
theología, a speaking concerning God, < theológos, speaking of God
(see theologue), < theós, god, + légein, speak.] The science concerned
with ascertaining, classifying, and systematizing all attainable truth
concerning God and his relation to the universe; the science of
religion; religious truth scientifically stated.
The ancient Greeks used the word to designate the history of their
gods; early Christian writers applied it to the doctrine of the nature
of God; Peter Abelard, ill the twelfth century, first began to employ
it to denote scientific instruction concerning God and the divine
life. Theology differs from religion as the science of any subject
differs from the subject matter itself. Religion in the broadest sense
is a life of right affections and right conduct toward God; theology
is a scientific knowledge of God and of the life which reverence and
allegiance toward him require. Theology is divided, in reference to
the sources whence the knowledge is derived, into natural theology,
which treats of God and divine things in so far as their nature is
disclosed through human consciousness, through the material creation,
and through the moral order discernible in the course of history apart
from specific revelation, and revealed theology, which treats of the
same subject-matter as mad!
e known in the scriptures of the 0ld and the New Testament. The
former is theistic merely; the latter is Christian, and includes the
doctrine of salvation by Christ, and of future rewards and
punishments. In reference to the ends sought and the methods of
treatment, theology is again divided into theoretical theology, which
treats of the doctrines and principles of the divine life for the
purpose of scientific and philosophical accuracy, and practical
theology, which treats of the duties of the divine life for immediate
practical ends. Theology is further divided, according to
subject-matter and methods, into various branches, of which the
principal are given below.
Ac Theologie hath tened me ten score tymes,
The more I muse there-inne the mistier it seemeth.
Piers Plowman (B), x. 180.
Theology, what is it but the science of things divine?
Hooker, Eccles. Polity, iii. 8.
Theology, properly and directly, deals with notional apprehension;
religion with imaginative.
J. H. Newman, Gram. of Assent, p. 115.
--Ascetical theology. See ascetical.
--Biblical theology, that branch of theology which has for its object
to set forth the knowledge of God and the divine life as gathered from
a large study of the Bible, as opposed to a merely minute study of
particular texts on the one hand, and to a mere use of philosophical
methods on the other.
--Dogmatic theology, that department of theology which has for its
object a connected and scientific statement of theology as a complete
and harmonious science as authoritatively held and taught by the
church.
--Exegetical theology. See exegetical.
--Federal theology, a system of theology based upon the idea of two
covenants between God and man--the covenant of nature, or of works,
before the fall, by which eternal life was promised to man on
condition of his perfect obedience to the moral law, and the covenant
of grace, after the fall, by which salvation and eternal life are
promised to man by the free grace of God. Kloppenburg, professor of
theology at Franeker in the Netherlands (died 1652), originated the
system, and it was perfected (1648) by John Koch (Cocceius), successor
of Kloppenburg in the same chair. See Cocceian.
--Fundamental theology, that branch of systematic theology which
vindicates man's knowledge of God by the investigation of its grounds
and sources in general, and of the trustworthiness of the Christian
revelation in particular, and which therefore includes both natural
theology and the evidences of Christianity.
--Genevan theology. See Genevan.
--Historical theology, the science of the history and growth of
Christian doctrines.
--Homiletic theology. Same as homiletics.
--Liberal theology. See liberal Christianity, under liberal.
--Mercersburg theology, a school of evangelical philosophy and
theology which arose about the year 1836, in the theological seminary
of the German Reformed Church at Mercersburg in Pennsylvania. It laid
emphasis on the incarnation as the center of theology, on development
as the law of church life, on the importance of the sacraments of
baptism and the Lord's Supper as divinely appointed means of grace,
and on Christian education of the youth of the church.
--Monumental theology. See monumental.
--Moral theology, a phrase nearly equivalent to moral philosophy,
denoting that branch of practical theology which treats of ethics, or
man's duties to his fellow-men.
The science of Moral Theology, as it was at first called, and as it
is still designated by the Roman Catholic divines, was undoubtedly
constructed, to the full knowledge of its authors, by taking
principles of conduct from the system of the Church, and by using the
language and methods of jurisprudence for their expression and
expansion.
Maine, Ancient Law, p. 337.
--Mystical theology. See mystical.
--Natural theology. See def. above.
--New England theology, that phase or those phases of Puritan
theological thought characteristic of the Congregational and
Calvinistic churches of New England.
--New theology, a name popularly given to a modern phase of Protestant
evangelical theology, especially as found in the New England
Congregational churches. As an intellectual movement it has much in
common with the Broad Church movement in the Church of England. In its
philosophy the new theology partakes of Greek, the old theology of
Latin Christian thought.
--Pastoral theology. See pastoral.
--Polemical theology, the learning and practice involved in the
endeavor to defend by scientific and philosophical arguments one
system of theology, or to controvert the positions of other and
opposing theological systems.
--Rational theology. See rational.
--Scholastic theology. See scholastic.
--Speculative theology, a system of theology which proceeds upon human
speculation, as opposed to one which proceeds upon an acceptance of
knowledge restricted to what has been revealed in the Bible.
--Systematic theology, a general term for all arranged and classified
knowledge of God and his relations to the universe, having for its
object the vindication of the reality of man's knowledge of God, in
opposition to agnostic philosophy, by the investigation of the grounds
and sources of such knowledge in general and of the trustworthiness of
the Christian revelation in particular, and the ascertaining,
formulating, and systematizing of all that is known respecting God and
his relations to the universe, in such form as to make manifest its
scientific trustworthiness.
Systematic theology presupposes exegetical, Biblical, and
historical theology, and is the basis of applied or practical
theology. Systematic or Speculative theology... comprehends
Apologetics, Dogmatics, Symbolics, Polemics, Ethics, and Statistics.
Schaff; Christ and Christianity, p. 4.
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
