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Fundamental Theology Lecture Notes 1

Definition and History

Theology means simply the word about God or the study of the Godhead. It is the formal attempt to

understand and interpret the things of God, both theoretical and practical, revealed in both Scripture and

tradition, in a scholarly, methodical, and systematic manner.

ANSELM OF CANTERBURY gave a classic formulation to the theological enterprise as fides quaerensintellectum, or faith seeking understanding.

What is Theology?

Let us try to understand:

Theology comes from the Greek words Theo, which means God and Logos, which literally means word.

Therefore, literally, Theology is the word about God or the study about God. This study has its Greek because

they are the first to make a systematic study of the things about every observable things and phenomena

including the divinity.

It is a formal attempt to understand and interpret the things of God.

Formal here means certain set of rules have to be followed in our study of Theology.

Theology is the study of religion, especially the Christian faith and God's relation to the world.Lets take the definition in detail: It is a study and religion is the subject of this study, particularly Christian

faith. Since Christian faith proclaims belief in God who created the world and governs everything in it, the work

of God as it relates to the life of humans and the creation becomes the subject of Theology.

Theology is, as St. Anselm puts it, faith seeking understanding. It is therefore an attempt to understand faith

employing faith and reason. Again, this entails a study but unlike other sciences where the scientists make use

only of reason and treats faith as irrational, in Theology, the totality of the person is involved including intellect

and faith.

What are the sources of doing Theology?

If a biologist begins his study by investigating the nature and function of living things, a physicist deals with

all non-living things, what is it that a theologian takes to start his investigation of a God who is unseen to thehuman eye but is accessible primarily through the human mind? Obviously, we can only begin with what we seeand perceive as human experience. Therefore, we might ask how do we experience God and since the

experience of God does not belong exclusively to the priests nor to the religious and theologians alone, well

have to deal with the human experience of God throughout history particularly that of the Judeo-Christian

Tradition (JCT). We will then call this human experience of God as the Revelation.

1. Human Experience

Life comes first, Theology follows. What the sacred writers of the Scriptures put into writing was the

experience of salvation they had with and through God. This experience was narrated and transmitted orally

before they were canonized as Scriptures. But this experience was primarily an interpreted experience using the

language and symbolisms found in the culture of the chosen people at the time of writing.

While all experiences are an interpretation of events, the Scriptures present the events from a particularvantage point, that of faith. Hence, the Scriptures are born from an experience understood in the light of faith, of

the encounter of the people with God.

2. Revelation

Revelation may be defined as the communication of some truth by God to a rational creature through means

which are beyond the ordinary course of nature. This is not synonymous to the last book of the New Testament,

Book of Revelation or Apocalypse which though they speak both about events as manifestation of Gods plan,the New Testament book is rather specific to a particular place, time and people while Revelation as a

theological subject pertains primarily to the manifestation in general of Gods divine will to humans particularly

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to Israel and later through His own Son, Jesus Christ. This Revelation, often called as the Judeo-ChristianTradition, is found in the Scriptures and Traditions as its sources.

Scriptures refer to the Old and New Testament books which form the Christian canon.

Tradition the living transmission of the Christian faith orally and in writing from the apostles to the

present time.

3. Church Teachings

In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the hidden purpose ofHis will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access

to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4). Through this revelation,

therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1;15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as

friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take

them into fellowship with Himself. This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having in inner unity:

the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by

the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation

then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the

mediator and the fullness of all revelation. DV#2

The eternal Father, by a free and hidden plan of His own wisdom and goodness, created the whole world.

His plan was to raise men to a participation of the divine life. Fallen in Adam, God the Father did not leave mento themselves, but ceaselessly offered helps to salvation, in view of Christ, the Redeemer "who is the image of

the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature".(2) All the elect, before time began, the Father "foreknew and

predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that he should be the firstborn among many

brethren".(3) He planned to assemble in the holy Church all those who would believe in Christ. Already from

the beginning of the world the foreshadowing of the Church took place. It was prepared in a remarkable way

throughout the history of the people of Israel and by means of the Old Covenant.(1*) In the present era of time

the Church was constituted and, by the outpouring of the Spirit, was made manifest. At the end of time it will

gloriously achieve completion, when, as is read in the Fathers, all the just, from Adam and "from Abel, the just

one, to the last of the elect,"(2*) will be gathered together with the Father in the universal Church. LG#2

Gods Revelation Through Time

L o v eGod Creation Salvation Redemption The End Times

How does one do Theology?

1. The Neo-Scholastic Method

In the post-Tredentine, counter-Reformation period, especially in the 19th and until the 1960s, Neo-

Scholastic Theology developed a response to the issues of the time, particularly in connection with the spread of

rationalist, fideist and traditionalit thinking. Characteristics of the Neo-Scholastic tehological approach is the

development of the theological manual which became the major theological instruction in schools and

seminaries. Neo-Scholastic theologicans seek first to clarify the Bible and early Church writers, followed by

arguments to refute the errors of Protestantism and finally instructs the readers or listeners on how to life a trulyCatholic life.

The Neo-Scholastic approach can be summarized as follows:

Starting point: Church Teaching

Sources of Proof: Scripture and TraditionSystematic Explanation of the Position

Application to Daily Life

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2. Method Arising from Vatican II

Dei Verbum, the Vatican II Document on the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation understands

revelation as Gods offer of goodness, life and love. This offer is freely given to the world, for God speaks

to men and woman as friends and dwells among them. The world then is the place of Gods revelation, of

his action. It is in and through the ordinary events of our lives that we experience and share in the divine

nature of God, that is, Gods goodness, life and love. If the world, and that is the world (oekumene) is

where God speaks (=acts > dabar) we must be attentive to the world with all its beauty and ugliness and itis in the world that we can live our humanity full of life and love in fellowship (=participation) with

others

This new understanding of the divine revelation prompted theologians to re-think their theological

approach. The Neo-Scholastic way of doing Theology where the doctrine or church teachings is the starting

point and human experience is relegated as non-essential is no longer tenable.

Dei Verbum calls us to a doing Theology that takes into account the particular situations, concerns,

issues or problems of people and their environment. The prime object of Theology remains as it is: God.

However, before asking what God wills for the world, theologians have to ask more basic questions about

the nature we live in, of the human situation. A wrong or flawed understanding of the reality outside due

to difficulties in knowing the situation may lead us to a wrong or flawed understanding of God. As St.Thomas Aquinas said, An error about the world redounds on error about God.

Beginning with the human experience, we affirm Gods gracious and saving presence and action, whose

will is nothing else than we live a full human life. As St. Iraneaus, too, said long time ago: Gloria Dei,

homo vivens; vita autem hominis visio Deithe glory of God is men and women fully alive! God is please

and glorified when we live a life of love.

This new understanding that arose from Vatican II thus inspired an approach which can be summarized

as follows:

The Pole of Contemporary Human experience: (SEE)

The Pole of the Judeo-Christian Tradition: (DISCERN)Practical Mediation or Theology of Praxis: (ACT)

3. Other Approaches arising from Liberation Theology

a. Feminist Theology

b. Theology of Ecology

What are the Branches of Theology?

Though it can be pursued objectively as an academic subject, theologys true purpose is in understanding

and interpreting the truths of God as a service to the community of FAITH. CHRISTIAN systematic theology

began with reflection of the three articles of faith in the theology of IRENAEUS OF LYONS. It includes the

doctrines of GOD, Christology, the FALL, redemption through GRACE, ECCLESIOLOGY, theSACRAMENTS, and ESCHATOLOGY. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO gave an authoritative formulation of the

truths of faith for the West in his large corpus of writings.

At present other branches of Theology have developed as a response to the need of times. Among the

different branches of Theology at present are as follows:

1. Apologetics - A theological science which has for its purpose the explanation and defence of the

Christian religion

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2. Biblical Theology theology that is drawn from the Bible by Biblical theology by seeking to discoverwhat the biblical writers, under divine guidance, believed, described, and taught in the context of their

own times.

3. Catechesis s an education in the faith of children, young people and adults which includes especially

the teaching of Christian doctrine imparted, generally speaking, in an organic and systematic way, with

a view to initiating the hearers into the fullness of Christian life.

4. Christology is that part of theology which deals with Our Lord Jesus Christ. In its full extent it

comprises the doctrines concerning both the personof Christ and His works; but in the present articlewe shall limit ourselves to a consideration of theperson ofChrist.

5. Church History is the scientific investigation and the methodical description of the temporal

development of the Churchconsidered as an institution founded by Jesus Christand guided by the Holy

Ghost for thesalvationofmankind.

6. Dogmatic Theology - That part of theology which treats of the theoretical truths of faith concerning God

and His works. At times, apologeticsor fundamental theology is called "general dogmatic theology",

dogmatic theology proper being distinguished from it as "special dogmatic theology".

7. Ecclesiology the theological discipline that studies the nature and constitution ofthe church and its distinctive place in the economy of salvation through CHRIST

8. Eschatology the study of the end times

9. Mariology Theology that deals with the study of Mary

10. Moral Theology or Christian Ethics the theology with studies the rightness or wrongness of the humanacts

11. Pastoral Theology Theology that deals with the care of the souls

12. Patrology - the study of the writings of the Fathers of the Church, has more commonly been known in

Englandas "patristics", or, more commonly still, as "patristic study".

13. Pneumatology Theology of the Holy Spirit

14. Sacramentology Theology that deals with the study of the sacraments

15. Soteriology the Theology of salvation

16. Spirituality (Mysticism) theology that deals with the different spiritualities in the Church

17. Theology of Grace Theology that deals with the study of Gods grace

18. Theological anthropology is the branch oftheology which is concerned with the study of humankind, oranthropology, in relation to the divine.

19. Liturgical Theology the branch of Theology which deals with the liturgy and worship of the Churchincluding the sacraments.

20. Such asTheology ProperorPaterologyis the study of God theFather.Christology is the study of God the Son, the Lord JesusChrist.Pneumatologyis the study of God the Holy Spirit.Bibliologyis thestudy of the Bible.Soteriologyis the study of salvation.Ecclesiologyis thestudy of the church.Eschatologyis the study of theend times.Angelologyisthe study of angels.Christian Demonologyis the study of demons from aChristian perspective.Christian Anthropologyis the studyof humanity.Hamartiologyis the study of sin. Systematic theology is animportanttool in helping us to understand and teach the Bible in an

organized manner.

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