What is Systematic Theology?

The definition of Systematic theology, given in Elwell, relates that this discipline is an “...attempt to reduce religious truth to a coherent and relevant whole for the church” (Elwell, P. 1162). As such, theology is related to philosophy in that both disciplines “...engage in the critical analysis of the meaning of terms, follow a strict process of observation and reasoning to reach conclusions, and traditionally (seek) to formulate a consistent worldview...” (p. 1163). With that being said, thoroughly Systematic theology is integrally related to Biblical theology, Historical theology, and Practical theology.

Exegetical theology “...unfolds the meaning of specific biblical texts and...provides systematic theology with its most important building block” (p.1164). Aristotle noted that theology is “...the greatest of sciences since its subject, God, is the highest reality” (p. 1162). Reality (temporal and Divine) is the acknowledgment of meaning. Exegesis, as the art of ascertaining meaning, enlightens the primal taxonomical understanding of Spiritual reality. Biblical theology, as a more macro-cosmic form of Exegetical theology, seeks to comprehend the “...message of biblical books by author or other scheme of grouping” (p. 1164).

Historical theology “...traces the church's faith topically through the various eras of its history” (p. 1164). This purview of Systematic theology concerns itself with the examination of developmental understandings of meaning, and conversely, distorted understandings of Spiritual reality. Excluding allegorical knowledge, Elwell (p. 1163) has noted that the partial knowledge of God, gained by finite humans, is a “...knowledge mediated by (analogical) images and symbols, as well as by propositional (cognitive, [didactic], univocal) assertions. Heuristic filters (weltanschauung by way of zeitgeist) surely affect Historical theology. It is for this reason that Elwell asserts the necessity of contextualizing theology (p. 1163).

Other than interdisciplinary relatedness, Philosophical theology was not explicitly addressed in this text (though Kant was mentioned). Practical theology was noted as a discipline seeking to apply “...the results of systematic theology to preaching, teaching, counseling, and formation of the spiritual life” (p. 1164). Practical theology meets Philosophical theology in its discussion of directional enlightenment. Namely, deductive from the illumination of God. Or, inductive from the enlightenment of man.

 
The theological approach most important to my current and future ministry context is Philosophical theology. I like this approach because it loosely reflects The Metamorphosis of Natural Theology in the Christian Encounter with Hellenism (Pelikan, 1993).1 Being that Christ Jesus, Messiah is the Incarnation of Wisdom itself; Being that “Wisdom” is the correct use of knowledge; It follows then, that all human truth finds its ultimate culmination in the One who is Truth.

Jesus said, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14.1-6).

When we neglect the elements of Creation which through the forordination of God bear witness to the I AM, we inadvertently devalue the supremacy of Christ Jesus, Messiah. I believe that a post-modern world desperately needs modernist contextualization in order to comprehend content. The Rebuke, Repentance, and Reconciliations of Grace can not be deconstructed into chaos in order to be sequentially understood. Though I presently use this model in a very simplified form within my teaching ministry, I would like to use this model evangelistically.

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1Pelikan, Jaroslav. Christianity and classical culture: The metamorphosis of natural theology in the christian encounter with hellenism. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993