Systematic theology
Systematic theology is the attempt to formulate a coherent philosophy which is applicable to the component parts of a given faith's system of belief. Inherent to a system of theological thought is that a method is developed, one which can be applied both broadly and particularly. While a systematic theology must take into account the sacred texts of its faith, it also looks to history, philosophy, and ethics to produce as full a view and as versatile a philosophical approach as possible.
The attempt to set out the varied ideas of the Christian religion (and the various topics and themes of the diverse texts of the Bible) in a single, coherent and well-ordered presentation is a relatively late development. In
Eastern Orthodoxy, an early example is provided by
John of Damascus's 8th century Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, in which he attempts to set in order, and demonstrate the coherence of, the theology of the classic texts of the Eastern theological tradition. In the West,
Peter Lombard's 12th century '
Sentences', in which he collected thematically a large series of quotations from the
Church Fathers, became the basis of a
medieval scholastic tradition of thematic commentary and explanation - best exemplified in
Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae. A Protestant tradition of thematic, ordered exposition of the whole of Christian theology (
Protestant Orthodoxy) emerged in the
16th century, with
Philipp Melanchthon's Loci Communes and
John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.
In the
19th century, primarily in
Protestant circles, a new kind of systematic theology arose: the attempt to demonstrate that Christian doctrine formed a more tightly coherent system grounded in some core axiom or axioms. Such theologies often involved a more drastic pruning and reinterpretation of traditional belief in order to cohere with the axiom or axioms.
Friedrich Schleiermacher, for instance, produced
Der christliche Glaube nach den Grundsatzen der evangelischen Kirche in the
1820s, in which the core idea is the universal presence amongst humanity (sometimes more hidden, sometimes more explicit) of a feeling or awareness of 'absolute dependence'; all theological themes are reinterpreted as descriptions or expressions of modifications of this feeling.
A department within
King's College London called the Research Institute in Systematic Theology is prominent in author
Dan Brown's bestselling novel,
"The Da Vinci Code". The novel boasts of it possessing "one of the most complete and electronically advanced religious libraries in the world," (pg. 407,) and is used by the novel's
protagonist,
Robert Langdon, to discover the location of a tomb of a knight located in
London. However, a
Channel 4 program critical of the book called
The Real Da Vinci Code discovered that the department was, in fact, an informal group of teachers and students and that the advanced electronic library was actually the college's computer system and the academics' personal systems.
There are three overlapping uses of the term 'systematic theology' in contemporary Christian theology.
* In
evangelical circles, it is used to refer to the
topical collection and exploration of the content of the
Bible, in which a different perspective is provided on the Bible's message than that garnered simply by reading the biblical narratives, poems, proverbs, and letters as a story of redemption or as a manual for how to live a godly life. One advantage of this approach is that it allows one to see all that the Bible says regarding some subject (e.g. the attributes of God), and one danger is a tendency to assign technical definitions to terms based on a few passages and then read that meaning everywhere the term is used in the Bible (e.g. "
justification" as Paul uses it in his letter to the Romans is different from how James uses it in his letter).
* The term can also be used to refer to theology which self-avowedly seeks to perpetuate the classical traditions of thematic exploration of theology described above - often by means of commentary upon the classics of those tradition: Damascus, Aquinas, Calvin, Melanchthon and others.
* Normally (but not exclusively) in
liberal theology, the term can be used to refer to attempts to follow in Schleiermacher's footsteps, and reinterpret Christian theology in order to derive it from a core set of axioms or principles.
In all three senses, Christian systematic theology will often touch on some or all of the following topics:
God,
revelation,
creation and
Divine providence,
Theodicy,
Theological Anthropology,
Christology,
soteriology,
ecclesiology,
sacrament,
Pneumatology, Christian life,
Heaven, and other religions.
*
St. Thomas Aquinas, Roman Catholic
*
St. Augustine of Hippo*
James Hal Cone, Methodist
*
Karl Barth, Lutheran
*
Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen*
John MacQuarrie,
Church of Scotland*
Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Muslim
*
Karl Rahner, Roman Catholic
*
Rosemary Ruther*
Ziauddin Sardar, Muslim
*
Kathryn Tanner, Orthodox
*
Paul Tillich, Lutheran
*
Rowan Williams, Anglican
*
Barth, Karl (1956-1975).
Church Dogmatics. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
*
Berkhof, Hendrikus (1979).
Christian Faith: An Introduction to the Study of the Faith. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
*
Berkhof, Louis (1996).
Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
*
Chafer, Lewis Sperry (1948).
Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Kregel
*
Chemnitz, Martin (1591).
Loci Theologici. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1989.
*
Fruchtenbaum, Arnold (1989).
Israelology: The Missing Link in Systematic Theology. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries
*
Fruchtenbaum, Arnold (1998).
Messianic Christology. Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries
*
Geisler, Norman L. (2002-2004).
Systematic Theology (four volumes). Minneapolis: Bethany House.
*
Grenz, Stanley J. (1994).
Theology for the Community of God. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
*
Grider, J. Kenneth (1994).
A Wesleyan-Holiness Theology (ISBN 0834115123)
*
Grudem, Wayne (1995).
Systematic Theology. Zondervan.
*
Hodge, Charles (1960).
Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
*
Jenson, Robert W. (1997-1999).
Systematic Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
*
Melanchthon, Philipp (1543).
Loci Communes. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1992.
*
Miley, John.
Systematic Theology. 1892.
*
Newlands, George (1994).
God in Christian Perspective. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
*
Oden, Thomas C. (1987-1992).
Systematic Theology (3 volumes). Peabody, MA: Prince Press.
*
Pannenberg, Wolfhart (1988-1993).
Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
* Pieper, Francis (1917-1924).
Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House.
*
Reymond, Robert L. (1998).
A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (2nd ed.). Word Publishing.
*
Schleiermacher, Friedrich (1928).
The Christian Faith. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
*
Thielicke, Helmut (1974-1982).
The Evangelical Faith. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.
* Thiessen, Henry C. (1949).
Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: William B. Erdsmans Publishing Co.
*
Tillich, Paul.
Systematic Theology. (3 volumes).
*
Van Til, Cornelius (1974).
An Introduction to Systematic Theology. P & R Press.
*
Watson, Richard.
Theological Institutes. 1823.
*
Weber, Otto. (1981-1983)
Foundations of Dogmatics. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
*
Biblical Exegesis*
Christian apologetics*
Christian theology*
Conservative Christianity*
Constructive Theology*
Feminist Theology*
Liberal Christianity*
Liberation Theology*
Philosophical Theology*
Philosophy of Religion*
Political Theology*
Process Theology*
Queer Theology*
International Journal of Systematic Theology (academic, ecumenical)
*
The Theology Progam(Studies in Systematic Theology featuring audio and video aids)
*
Scottish Journal of Theology (academic, ecumenical)
*
Resources for Christian Theology (British, Protestant)
*
Faith and Theology (systematic theology weblog)
*
Library of Sytematic Theology (conservative Calvinist)
