Introduction to Theology PDF

DOGMATIC THEOLOGY (DT 01) INTRODUCTION TO THEOLOGY  What is Your Faith/ Religious Experience?  Scripture Traditio Incidents n Even Faith ts  What is Faith/Religious...

DOGMATIC THEOLOGY (DT 01) INTRODUCTION TO THEOLOGY  What is Your Faith/ Religious Experience?  Scripture Traditio Incidents n Even Faith ts  What is Faith/Religious Experience Being in love with God, as experienced, is being in love in an unrestricted fashion. All love is self-surrender, but being in love with God is being in love without limits or qualifications or conditions or reservations. Just as unrestricted questioning is our capacity for self-transcendence, so being in love in an unrestricted fashion is the proper fulfilment of that capacity. That fulfilment is not the product of our knowledge and choice.  On the contrary, it dismantles and abolishes the horizon in which our knowing and choosing went on and it sets up a new horizon in which the love of God will transvalue our values and eyes of that love will transform our knowing.  Though not product of our knowing and choosing, it is a conscious dynamic state of love, joy, peace, that manifests itself in acts of kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22).  The expressions of religious experience Religious experience spontaneously manifests itself in changed attitudes, in that harvest of the Spirit that is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control.  BELIEF = FAITH The words “faith” and “belief” are similar words. Nelson's Bible Dictionary defines faith as a belief in or confident attitude toward God, involving commitment to his will for one's life.  Nelson also says belief is to place one's trust in God's truth.... Faith and belief are two sides of the same coin. “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”— Matthew 17:20  Now let’s look at how the New King James Version translates that same verse. So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.— Matthew 17:20 (NKJV) Belief: Faith: An acceptance that Confidence or trust in something exists or is true, especially one a person or thing: without proof. faith in another's An opinion or ability. judgment in which a To me, this is an person is fully easier way to persuaded/convinced. understand it. Faith = (Belief × Action × Confidence)  Belief Faith Faith includes our So our beliefs are beliefs, but it is things that we are bigger than that. thoroughly convinced Faith requires action. of. Usually (but not If it doesn’t move us always) they are ideas, to do something or concepts that we say something – gather through actually take some acquiring information kind of action – it’s and experience. not really faith at all. James said it this way.  Belief Faith Because of that, our So you see, faith beliefs can change by itself isn’t over time as we gain enough. more Unless it produces knowledge and good deeds, it is dead experience more and useless.— things throughout our James 2:17 lives.  FAITH 1. Informative Faith (Head) 2. Formative/Transformative Faith (Heart) 3. Performative Faith (Hand) Informative Faith (Head) Formative/Transformative Faith (Heart) Performative Faith (Hand)  Informative Fait h Formative/ Performative Transformative Heb. 11:1-40  Revelation will make your faith more understandable or comprehensible. Revelation is a complex reality, at the same time a manifestation and communication of God,  A dynamic reality which accomplishes the designs of God in human history, and A message which is translated into human terms on the lips of the prophets and of Christ, in order to illuminate the hidden meaning of the saving events.  THEOLOGY Theologia (Gk) Theos Logia (God) (Words, utterances or speech  THEOLOGY Theology can be translated as Talking about God Study about God  THEOLOGY In the broadest sense, any person who is reasoning about God based on divine revelation is doing theology--though that's very far from saying that they are doing it well, as the enormous amount of theological confusion that is out there illustrates. Plato used it in this sense in the fourth century BCE in his classic work, The Republic.  THEOLOGY The classic Christian definition of theology Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109), fides faith quaerens seeking intellectum understanding What is important about Anselm’s definition It underlines that Theology in the Christian tradition is always a critical reflection on the faith of the community,  An effort to bring the faith-experience of God God’s grace to expression, clarity, and deeper understanding.  It means asking Questions, Probing more deeply into our beliefs, Trying to bring our sense for God and God’s graciousness toward us to more adequate levels of expression.  The emphasis on faith, Received and Handed on Distinguishes theology from religious studies; It is a confessional approach.  Religious Theology Study To do theology is to Religious studies stand within a faith means studying the tradition same from outside so to speak As one might study Reflect on it critically sixteenth-century English literature or German history. There is no personal investment.  As Pope John Paul I reportedly said: “Theologians talk a lot about God. I wonder how often they talk to God.”  The Nature of Theology First Theology, even when done by individuals, is always rooted in the community of faith.  The Nature of Theology Second Theology is always a second order language, removed by several levels of abstraction, metaphor or analogy from the faith experience to which it gives rise.  The Nature of Theology Third Theology is always contextual; it represents an effort to reflect on the Gospel message in a particular historical situation or context.  The Nature of Theology Fourth Theology is a critical discipline, a science with its own methods and “specialties,” even if different from the empirical sciences.  Function of Theology Positive and Speculative The Positive Function is the assumption of the Auditus Fidei (listening, hearing) at a scientific level Positive theology is the function by which theology enters into possession of the truth revealed.  It is the promotion to the scientific level of the Auditus Fidei, that is of the faith which enters by the ears, which is effected in the believer pure and simple through preaching and catechism. Preaching and catechesis assure in us a sufficient knowledge of the object of faith, But theology, as the science of God and his mysteries, is not content with this minimum knowledge.  Function of Theology The Speculative Function is the minds reflection upon the truth of faith methodically and systematically possessed. Intellectus Fedei (understanding, comprehension) Theology in its positive collates and systematizes the data of revelation contained in Scripture and tradition and interpreted by the magisterium.  This appropriation of what is given by faith is already an initial experience of the mystery, but theology in its speculative function intends to pursue and deepen it.  The total theological process is a quest revealed truth and a quest of the mind on the subject of revealed truth. It is under the very pressure of the auditus fidei (of which positive theology in the scientific state) that the intellectus fidei (of which speculative theology is a scientific state) begins and continues.  No speculative function without the positive No positive function without the speculative Eight functional specialties in Theology: 1. Research 5. Foundations 2. Interpretation 6. Doctrines 3. History 7. Systematics 4. Dialectic 8. Communications  Theological Disciplines A traditional division of the theological disciplines 1. Fundamental and Apologetic theology 2. Dogmatic/Systematic theology 3. Biblical theology, Patristic theology 4. Moral theology, Liturgical theology and Spiritual theology 5. Pastoral theology, Missionary theology and Ecumenical theology  Theological Disciplines 1. Fundamental theology 2. Natural or philosophical theology 1. Fundamental 3. Apologetics theology  Theological Disciplines 1. Fundamental theology Fundamental theology seeks to establish the historical and philosophical grounds for the fundamental doctrines of the faith: God, Christ, the Spirit, the Church and so on. It presupposes revelation.  Theological Disciplines 2. Natural or philosophical theology Natural theology asks what we can know about the mystery of the divine in light of philosophical reflection It relies on natural reason not revelation.  Theological Disciplines 3. Apologetics Apologetics today often considered a part of fundamental theology at its best seeks to enter into a dialogue with culture by showing the reasonableness of Christian faith and its teaching.  Theological Disciplines 4. Biblical theology Biblical theology investigates Christianity’s sacred writings or scriptures. Thus the story of Israel and the early Christian community its memory of Jesus and his ministry and the initial development of its theological language.  Scripture obviously is ingredient in all theological disciplines but there are many different theologies in the Old and New Testaments and scripture always needs to be interpreted.  Theological Disciplines 5. Historical theology Historical theology studies how the church’s faith has developed and its theological language has changed in different periods in the church’s long history. In includes various subsets – for example patristic medieval reformation modern and nineteenth century theology.  Theological Disciplines 6. Moral theology Moral theology often called Christian ethics today seeks to understand what it means to live life in Christ guided by the Holy Spirit. Thus it includes both the personal and social dimensions of Gospel living.  Theological Disciplines 7. Pastoral theology includes number of disciplines pastoral theology itself seeks to nurture and deepen the practical life of Christians and their communities.  Liturgical theology is concerned with the theology and expression of the church’s worship. Spirituality examines different ways of expressing a life of prayer discipleship Christian service and growing in the spirit.  Theological Disciplines 8. Finally there is systematic theology. Systematic theology Constructive theology Dogmatic theology  Systematic Theology Systematics Lonergan seeks - to understand and render more intelligible the central doctrines of the faith show how they are related to each other. - show how the church’s doctrinal tradition grows out of its roots in scripture and develops in the history of the church most importantly it strives to more adequately express and  Systematic Theology Sometimes reinterpret that tradition always in the interest of better communicating the mystery of salvation and bringing it into a dialogue with culture. Systematic theology is truly evangelical for this reason it is also concerned with how to relate faith to culture.  Systematic Theology Concerns of the Systematic Theology First Systematic theology is concerned with understanding the basic doctrines of Christian faith and, thus, the meaning or truth of those doctrines.  Systematic Theology Doctrines aim at a clear Systematics aims at an and distinct affirmation of understanding of the religious religious realities: realities affirmed by its principal concern is the doctrines,” truth of such an Systematic with affirmation. understanding. Doctrines are correlated Systematics attempts to understand what has been with judgment, affirmed. Doctrines are affirmations.  Systematic Theology Second Systematic theology is concerned with how the basic doctrines of the faith relate to each other.  Systematic Theology Third Systematic theology is comprehensive. In its efforts to understand Christian doctrine, it necessarily incorporates the data of biblical, historical, and doctrinal theology.