Theology for Dummies - Systematic Theology

"... a discipline of Christian Theology that attempts to formulate an orderly, rational and coherent account of the Christian faith and beliefs." Wikipedia's definition here is adequate but a little prejudicial. The idea is that this is the only way of doing theology rationally is a little much. When you look at it the best way to define systematic theology is to contrast it with biblical theology. While biblical attempts to see chronological development of the big picture, systematic theology follows a single theme or group of themes through the Scriptures and it is done in such a way as to not really give the chronological development of revelation a lot of thought. The best theologians use elements of both.

For myself, I try to always keep the big picture of revelation in mind and the chronology is important. Things change and evolve in Scripture and it is good to use biblical theology to remember to keep in mind the full tapestry of revelation. At the same, systematic theology allows me to take a good close up look at a single thread or group of related threads in that tapestry.

If there is a weakness to systematics is that it can assume certain categories exist and presuppose or assume their existence. Just becasue the church says the category of such and such exists in Scripture, that does not mean it is so in all cases.

Probably the best illustration I can give of what I mean is the series I did on The Bible and Nakedness. As biblical theologian I wanted to divorce myself from assumptions about the topic that I might have: "nakedness is always wrong and sinful" as an example. I also wanted to see how the topic developed as the chronology of the Bible is followed. Using systematic theology, I also was looking at a group of themes in the Scripture and taking them as a whole at the end when I drew my conclusions. I use both.

There is a tension between the two types of theology, but they also can be used to get a more complete picture of the issue at hand.

Next: Historical Theology