Contemporary Theology: Towards a Definition of Theology Essay

This essay provides a comprehensive exploration of theology, beginning with a basic definition as the study of God's nature in relation to the universe. It acknowledges the diverse interpretations across cultures and religions, highlighting the challenges in formulating a universally accepted definition. The essay traces the historical evolution of theological thought, from pre-Renaissance views to the rise of deism, the influence of philosophers like Hegel, and the emergence of liberalism. It discusses key figures and movements, such as Ritschl, Harnack, and Rauschenbusch, and their approaches to theology. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of respecting various interpretations and the ongoing quest to understand the meaning of God and the purpose of life on Earth. The essay uses Michelangelo's painting “Creation of Adam” as a backdrop to illustrate how God has been involved in the lives of mankind and its behaviors from the very beginning of time. The essay emphasizes the importance of balancing the immanent and transcendent qualities of God if we are going to articulate a meaningful theology.

Running head: TOWRARDS A DEFINITION OF THEOLOGY
TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF THEOLOGY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF THEOLOGY
Theology has a wide range of interpretations. The most basic definition of the term is
that it is the study of the nature of God, in relation to the universe (Vanhoozer & Warner,
2016). However, such definitions inform less than what they ignore. Various cultures and
religions have their own understandings of God, and interpretations about what God has
revealed about him. But, a clear understanding of the term still remains vague across the
globe. The purpose of this essay is to attempt at defining the meaning of theology, in a way
that could hold true for all religions and cultures.
Michelangelo’s painting called the “creation of Adam” depicts a lot about ancient
theology. It describes how god has been involved in the lives of mankind and its behaviors
from the very beginning of time (Di Bella et al., 2015). But with such concepts of theology
getting old, the need to arrive at a proper conclusion regarding the meaning of contemporary
theology, is greater than ever before. Post the renaissance, the idea that church was the sole
mouthpiece of god, and no one else could interpret the nature of god and his relevance to
mankind, gradually began to erode, giving way to the medieval European ideals. Protests
began to take place against the idea that the church held all the knowledge about god. From
Martin Luther nailing 95 theses on the church door to protest against the excesses of the
church, to Copernicus being the first to theorize that the earth is not the center of the
universe, as opposed to the church’s teachings, theories about god’s nature and relevance to
mankind began to evolve (Henry, 2017). Francis Bacon made a breakthrough in this by
suggesting that people can perhaps learn more about the nature and behavior of everything
around them, scientifically rather than from exaggerated explanations that the church
provides them with. Renee Descartes later stated that rationale was necessary in order to gain
proper knowledge on things. According to him, the curiosity to know the truth could fetch
more accurate knowledge to an individual than the blind faith in the church ever will.

2TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF THEOLOGY
The rise of deism is a landmark in this context, which conceptualized that humans are
made my god in such a way that the only way to know about the nature of him, would be by
understanding the nature of the surroundings of humans (Hudson & Lucci, 2016). Post the
thirty years war, deism declined swiftly, but had sowed the seed of shaking the church off the
position to be followed blindly. Post this, Georg Hegel’s approach of binding theology with
philosophy was to lay the foundation for later theologians to find theology in philosophy. He,
alongside Schleiermacher and Kant set theology completely aside from the bible. They
attempted at interpreting god according to the background of their own cultures (Hegel,
2018). This approach eventually led to Liberalism, which argued that the goal was not to
determine God’s relation to mankind, but to create a morally responsible world to create the
kingdom of god on the earth itself. The pioneers of this movement were Albrecht Ritschl,
Adolf von Harnak and Walter Rauschenbusch. Each of them had their own approach towards
explaining theology. Ritschl being the most influential amongst them, stated that theological
knowledge was different from scientific knowledge, and argued that “the source of theology
is not the Bible as a whole but the apostolic circle of ideas”. Van Harnak argued that the
highest level of ideal was in the rule of love and unity, where man would conquer enemies
through gentleness. Rauschenbusch’s idea was to put forth that Christianity is entitled to
make relations better between human beings, establishing harmony and peace in the society
and ensuring that the kingdom of god is created here on earth itself. Liberalism was one of
the last notable movements in the field of theology. While no significant explanation on the
matter has arrived yet since then, the comprehension of theology remains widely open even
today.
To conclude, it can be said that theology has had a wide range of interpretations,
arguments, and explanations throughout history. While some argued that scientific ways of
looking at things were better than following the church blindly, some entwined the concept

3TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF THEOLOGY
with philosophy, and some argued that humanity was above all and building the kingdom of
god on earth was more sensible than finding his relation with mankind (Bergmann, 2017). It
must be noted that theology can have a lot of interpretations across various religions, each of
which should be respected, according to the arguments of Grenz and Olsen. Perhaps, the true
meaning of the concept of theology would never be known unless man has the proper
understanding of the meaning of God himself, and the purpose of life on Earth.

4TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF THEOLOGY
References
Bergmann, S. (2017). God in context: A survey of contextual theology. Routledge.
Di Bella, S., Taglietti, F., Iacobuzio, A., Johnson, E., Baiocchini, A., & Petrosillo, N. (2015,
April). The “delivery” of Adam: a medical interpretation of Michelangelo. In Mayo
Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 90, No. 4, pp. 505-508). Elsevier.
Hegel, G. W. F. (2018). Hegel's philosophy of mind. BoD–Books on Demand.
Henry, J. (2017). Moving Heaven and Earth (Icon Science): Copernicus and the Solar
System. Icon Books.
Hudson, W., & Lucci, D. (2016). Atheism and Deism Revalued: Heterodox Religious
Identities in Britain, 1650-1800. Routledge.
Vanhoozer, K., & Warner, M. (Eds.). (2016). Transcending boundaries in philosophy and
theology: reason, meaning and experience. Routledge.