What then Is Theology?: An Introduction to Christian Theology

by Willem J. Ouweneel

WHAT THEN IS THEOLOGY? Throughout the life-time of the Body of Christ, Christians have typically identified theology, a theoretical enterprise, with the everyday non-theoretical language of the Bible. Enthralled with the idea that as the Logos of the Greek philosophers provided an "intelligent... principle of the universe," so too, the first verse of the Gospel of John similarly provides Christians with a rational entrée to the mind of God and his creation. With such a view the Bible easily becomes a textbook regarding the real nature of everything. Hence it is assumed in many orthodox circles that it is the task of theology to provide the systematic organization of the "logical" propositions of the Bible.

Ouweneel asks, Is theology really the same as "Bible study", or the "study of Christian doctrine"? Is theology "science"? And if so, what does this involve? How can you distinguish between scientific and non-scientific - or even unscientific - theology? If the Apostles Peter, John, and Paul were indeed "theologians", were they scientific, non-scientific, or unscientific theologians? Does it matter whether theology is "scientific" or not?