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Let’s begin with language. Theology comes from two Greek words: “theos,” meaning “God,” and “logos,” which is difficult to define. In ancient Greece, the philosophers and theologians had many interpretations of it, and this influenced the religions that emerged in and around the region. Philo of Alexandria, for example, had a very developed doctrine of the logos. This doctrine referred to the logos as God, the word of God, God’s action, and the mediator between man and God.
Theology then is really the perfect word to use to get into the study of God. The language and the history around it are really rich, varied, and inspiring. As a formal discipline of study, it’s different from the phenomenology of religion, because it works with the questions related to the underlying reality of the unseen. It seeks answers to these questions often in a way that demands more involvement with faith.
As we have discussed in other lessons, the age-old preoccupation with these questions related to the unseen has guided the development of human thought and religious expression. Theology in a general sense refers to this process. As a modern discipline, theology continues to explore and search for answers to the big questions, whether they are from within a religious tradition or from without.
During the European Enlightenment, the coupling of theology with formal academics began to be questioned and brought into debate. This continues to the present day.
The basis for the arguments has to do with the question of impartiality and partiality with regard to studying theology; questions such as, “Are the investigations objective?” and “Is commitment of faith necessary when studying theology, and if so, does it get in the way of what’s being studied?”
Because of its strong link with Greek philosophy, theology is mainly associated with the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. However, it can also be used in certain ways to refer to other philosophies, religions, and approaches to the unseen that seek to answer some of the same fundamental questions.
Theology was thriving during the Middle Ages, and it was nearly inseparable from the study of other subjects. It was considered to be the pinnacle of academics, and for that reason, it was given the name “The Queen of the Sciences.”
Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides, was a hugely influential Jewish medieval philosopher, theologian, and physician from the 12th century. He sought to integrate Greek philosophy and rationalism with his own Judaic tradition. He applied it to the study of the Torah, the Hebrew Bible.
Maimonides was known for many works, especially the Mishneh Torah, or the repetition of the Torah, which is a codification or coding, of Jewish religious law and observances. He also wrote a philosophical text called Guide for the Perplexed.
A little bit later, Saint Thomas Aquinas came on the scene to energize Roman Catholic thought. The method that he used is referred to as scholasticism. Like Maimonides, Aquinas put a lot of work into trying to harmonize and reconcile Hellenistic Greek philosophy with his Roman Catholic faith.
Aquinas’s principal text is called the Summa Theologica, and Aquinas's foundational concept in the Summa involves Aristotle’s notion of the prime mover, or the first unmoved mover. He used this metaphysical idea of motion to argue for God’s existence; it is known as the proof of God’s existence from motion.
A lot of the scholasticism of Maimonides and Aquinas can be traced back to a medieval Muslim theologian named Ibn Sina, or Avicenna, from the early 11th century. Avicenna was a philosopher and metaphysician who wrote volumes on the nature of being in existence, the existence of God and his creatures, and the relationship between a necessary and contingent being, or dependent existence.
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