The Encyclopedia of World Religions

theology S 447

explaining the Bible as understood by the Fathers of the church. Theologians also take up many particular topics. They often discuss what God is like, how people can know about God, and, in Christianity, the TRINITY and INCARNATION . Other topics include God’s relationship to the world ( COSMOLOGY ), God’s relationship to human beings (anthropology), how salvation takes place (soteriology), and what will happen at the end of time ( ESCHATOLOGY ). THEOLOGY TODAY After World War I, the dominant school of theol ogy was Neo-orthodoxy. Its primary spokespersons were two Swiss theologians, Karl Barth and Emil Brunner. According to this school, a theologian’s task is to expound the Word of God. But for Barth and Brunner the Word of God meant something different from the Bible. It meant the self-revela tion of God, especially in J ESUS . Influential thinkers related to this school but not strictly Neo-ortho dox include Paul Tillich and the American brothers Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr. Beginning in the 1960s, other currents of the ology became extremely influential. One of them was “liberation theology.” It addressed the situa tions of oppressed peoples, especially Latin Ameri can peasants, women ( see FEMINISM ), and African Americans. Other theologians became acutely aware of religious plurality. Some of them entered into DIALOGUE with representative thinkers of other religions. Some also began work on comparative or global theologies. More recently, some theologians have been exploring the implications of research into the structures of the mind and brain for religion. They call their work “neurotheology” ( see BRAIN , MIND , AND RELIGION ). Before World War II, American schools, col leges, and universities that taught about religion generally taught theology. They offered courses in Bible, in the history of Christianity, in theology narrowly conceived, in ethics, and in “comparative religion.” Schools affiliated with a religion often still teach religion this way. Many Catholic schools are good examples.

lectual thinking in these two traditions has often had a different focus from theology: in Judaism the study of the T ORAH , both written and oral, and in Islam the study of jurisprudence ( f iqh ). Hindu traditions of thought about the self and the world are usually called “philosophy.” “Orthodox” schools accept the authority of the sacred books known as the V EDA ; other schools reject it. Some schools of both varieties are actu ally atheistic. Others give God or the gods little or no attention. B UDDHISM has sophisticated traditions of thought, but it is better to call them philosophy or even buddhalogy than theology. To label Con fucian, Taoist, and S HINTO thinkers “theologians” would be odd. TOPICS IN THEOLOGY Christians and others use the word “theology” in both a broad and a narrow sense. In the broad sense, theology includes any and every subject taught in a school of theology or a seminary. Dif ferent schools organize their curricula differently, so there is no single list of such subjects. Some identify four areas of theology: biblical, historical, systematic, and practical. Biblical theology deals with the B IBLE . Historical theology deals with the history of the religious community, for example, the church. Systematic theology deals with the community’s beliefs and morality. Practical theol ogy teaches people how to meet the needs of a community, for example, PREACHING , teaching, WOR SHIP , and pastoral care. In a narrow sense, theology refers to the study of systematic theology, especially to the study of beliefs. (The study of morality is called “ethics.”) Here again, there is no standard list of topics that all theologians address. Theologians choose and arrange topics in ways that will best allow them to express their views and insights. Some topics, however, are fairly common. Theologians often identify the sources of knowledge that they consider valid or binding. Protestant theologians usually depend upon the Bible. Roman Catholic theologians depend upon traditional teachings of the church as well as the Bible. Orthodox theologians see their task as