Introduction to Theology and Theological Language

Introduction to Theology and Theological Language

By Dr. Thomas L. Long

Theology is the rational, philosophical reflection on the nature of God or gods and the scholarly discipline that examines sacred texts and doctrines about divine and supernatural things. We can distinguish three kinds of theological language: narrative theology (telling a story in order to assert something about God or supernatural things), figurative or symbolic theology (employing poetic or rhetorical figures in order to convey something about God or supernatural things), and propositional theology (using philosophical assertions in order to make statements about the nature of God or supernatural). The earliest Jewish theologians were rabbis who reflected on the nature and demands of God by commenting on the scriptures (a combination of narrative and figurative theology). Christianity initially employed similar examination of the Jewish scriptures, but eventually developed its own scriptures and theological language in a very technical propositional theology. The history of Christianity and the two-thousand years of accumulated thinking and writing about Jesus of Nazareth were not produced exclusively in the language and concepts of the Bible. After the formation of the New Testament canon, early Christian writers, called the Church Fathers (writing in a period of Christianity called the Patristic Era), found that they could not always adequately discuss doctrine solely in the narrative or figurative language of the Bible. Therefore, they began to use the language of Greco-Roman philosophy.

When Judaism during Passover recounts the story of the Exodus out of Egypt, it is employing narrative theology. When Christianity refers to God as "Father" or Jesus of Nazareth as God's "Son" or as the "Messiah" (i.e. anointed king), it is employing figurative theology (that is applying human categories to divine beings). When the medieval Christian theologian Anselm defined God as "That than which nothing greater can be thought" he was employing propositional theology.

Christian theology can be classified into several categories or sub-disciplines: foundational theology (describing the nature of God and revelation), Christology (describing the nature of Jesus Christ), ecclesiology (describing the nature, function, roles, authority, and leadership of the Church), Christian anthropology (describing human nature and the function of divine grace), soteriology (describing the necessity for and nature of salvation), sacramentology (describing the meaning of Christian ritual life), moral theology (describing the ways in which Christians have to make ethical decisions), and eschatology (describing the last things, either life and afterlife of the individual or the end of the world).

Jesus of Nazareth employed narrative and figurative theological language almost exclusively and the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke tend likewise to employ narrative and figurative theology derived from the Jewish tradition. The Gospel According to John, however, additionally employs the terminology of Greek and gnostic philosophy: In that gospel, Jesus is the pre-existent Logos (clearly a propositional assertion that has little to do with Judaism). The epistles, particularly St. Paul's and those attributed to John, employ all three theological forms.

Everyone who reads the Bible today does so with two thousand years of propositional theology behind them. One function of a biblical survey course will be to strip away or temporarily suspend the effects of that accumulation in order to try to see the texts with fresh eyes.

Two versions below of one of the earliest formal Christian creeds (the original version and the later version developed for use in public worship) demonstrate the difference among narrative, figurative, and propositional theologies. The Church Fathers gathered at the Council of Nicea in 325 were urgently attempting to repudiate a theology that had become very popular, Arianism, which asserted that Jesus was fully human but not fully divine. In condemning Arianism as a heresy, they could not find technical language in the narrative or figurative theology of the scriptures that was sufficiently precise in explaining how Jesus was identical to (but also distinct from) the Creator. Therefore, they resorted controversially to a term from Greek pagan philosophy: ??µ???s??? , later translated into Latin as consubstantialem ("one-in-being" or "of the same substance").

Guide:

Narrative theology
Figurative theology

Propositional theology

Nicene Creed

The Synod at Nice set forth this Creed.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of his Father, of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father [??µ???s??? t?? pat??/consubstantialem Patri]. By whom all things were made, both which be in heaven and in earth. Who for us men and for our salvation came down [from heaven] and was incarnate and was made man. He suffered and the third day he rose again, and ascended into heaven. And he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead. And [we believe] in the Holy Spirit. And whosoever shall say that there was a time when the Son of God was not, or that before he was begotten he was not, or that he was made of things that were not, or that he is of a different substance or essence [from the Father] or that he is a creature, or subject to change or conversion--all that so say, the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes them.

From The Seven Ecumenical Councils, ed. H. Percival, in the Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, 2nd series (New York: Charles Scribners, 1990), Vol XIV, 3

The liturgical version used in mainstream Christian churches.

We believe (I believe) in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and born of the Father before all ages. (God of God) light of light, true God of true God. Begotten not made, consubstantial to [one in being with] the Father [??µ???s??? t?? pat??/consubstantialem Patri], by whom all things were made. Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and was made man; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; and the third day rose again according to the Scriptures. And ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, of whose Kingdom there shall be no end. And (I believe) in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father (and the Son), who together with the Father and the Son is to be adored and glorified, who spoke by the Prophets. And one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. We confess (I confess) one baptism for the remission of sins. And we look for (I look for) the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen."