Christian Theology (Noun)
Meaning
The teachings of Christian churches.
Classification
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents.
Examples
- Christian theology, as distinct from biblical theology, is the study of Christian doctrine from a topical perspective, using various tools of analysis and evaluation.
- Christian theology often divides the Bible into sections, consisting of biblical works, interpretations, history, and theology itself.
- Theologians and scholars have worked to establish criteria for a systematic Christian theology on the basis of the assumptions common to all Christians, including the authority of the Bible and the existence of a covenant between God and persons.
- Because of the importance of studying the Old Testament in its own right, Christian theology traditionally has accepted as canonical an even wider collection of inspired literature than Hebraists.
- Norman Geisler distinguishes formal from material theology as follows: Formal Theology includes everything that is not directly related to the actual content, including the methods, the approaches, the tools of theology, but particularly how to organize the actual content; Material theolgy is the content itself (Christian Theology, Baker 1967).