Theology for Dummies - Ecclesiology

ecclesia - 'congregation, church'
ology - 'study of'

Ecclesiology is the theological study of the church and subjects can include everything from how the church started, it relationship to Jesus Christ, leadership, role in salvation and its final destiny.

In many cases, the reasons there are denominations in Christianity is differences in ecclesiology. Sometimes it is about governing structure: Congregational (rule by the congregation), Episcopal (Rule by bishops) or Presbyterian (Rule by elected presbyters), etc. Other times it can be about the churches role in salvation which is the chief dividing line between Catholics and Protestants.

The other subjects are not so much dividing points of disagreement as they are philosophical and theological understandings. These can lead to division as well but are more likely effect an individual's perception of them self inside the church.

When we are talking about ecclesiology we are talking about the church in some way or another.

Next: Eschatology

Theology for Dummies - Soteriology

From the Greek - meaning "Study of Salvation". The real problem with this theological term is that it is not exclusive to Christianity. Other religions will talk about soteriology as well because the basic idea is "What is salvation and how is one saved?" Now this question has been around for along time and the answers are so numerous that it takes large theological books to keep track of them all.

The basic issues in Christian Soteriology however are: 'How does God save us?', "How are sins forgiven?"; "How does one obtain eternal life?" along with many more like these. If you break it down into Christian camps of thought there are basically five with various offshoots: Orthodox, Catholic, Arminianism, Calvinism and Lutheran. It get real tricky though when putting some in a camp as elements tend to bleed over into another. Some schools have disputes over the particulars of each question within themselves as well.

The main issue though is to remember that when anyone use the term 'soteriology' they are talking about salvation.

Next: Ecclesiology

Theology for Dummies - Liberation Theology

Wikipedia - '... is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teaching of Jesus Christ in terms of liberation from unjust economic, political or social conditions."

This movement was originally started in the 1950s in Latin America as Roman Catholic movement. The Vatican frowned on liberation theology because of its obvious Marxist connections. In short, this seems to be an attempt to join the ideas of some of the teachings of Jesus with Marxism and the idea of revolutionary overthrow of governments in order to ease poverty and political injustice.

This movement has had many influences including various movements in the United States such as black liberation theology and other movements that promote a overthrow of what is to establish a more socially responsive government.

There are some problems with this theology from my perspective, chief among them is the fact this theology seems to be very selective about which teaching of Christ it follows. It embraces any teaching about helping people but it ignores such teachings that involve passive resistence of evil action. Other things as historical theology would point out as well: the early Christians; for instance, never used aggressive or violent revolution to take out the Roman government for example. It also assumes Jesus taught Marxist communism, which I don't see either with some of Jesus' teachings on landowners and master servant relationships.

In many ways this theology is an attempt to have Communism and Christianity hold hands in unity and as far as I can tell that has some difficulties. It also overemphasizes social responsibility over individual responsibility to the point it justifies anger and even hatred toward people in government. In many respects, it has a tunnel vision on justifying revolution in Christ's teachings more than anything else.

Next: Process Theology