If you ever read a systematic theology textbook, one of the first things you will encounter is a definition of theology. In some ways this is to be expected. Many even go through the Greek to explaining where we get our definitions from. However, what I’ve found is that a hard stance on theology being the study of God is shunned. How do we insert subjects like ecclesiology and eschatology into such a definition? The truth of the matter is that our working definition of theology should not succumb to our fanciful ideas of what theology encompasses. Rather, our understanding of God needs to be something that encompasses all that theology discusses. To put it more plainly, if when we talk about God we don’t also have discussion of the creation, of humanity, of angels and demons, of the end times, of sin and salvation, and of God’s foretold work through all of time, then we aren’t truly talking about God.
God has expressed Himself through these things over and over again. He puts His name upon certain people, peoples, historic events, and even prophecies. To take God away from those things is to ruin our concept of God as well as those things. The difficulty in defining theology is often a philosophical difficulty. The secular theologian, even one who claims to believe, is found debating the details in an unhealthy manner. For the fear of debate, or the even worse confrontation, I have found that many do indeed settle the issue of definition at the statement of what all theology encompasses.
While there is sometimes reason for this, even stating what we don’t mean to imply, I simply reject the notion that we as Christians should operate by the concern of opposition. The wisdom of God, and therefore all of theology, is in stark contrast to the wisdom of this evil age. They who believe in the world system, and all of its so-called genius, have ever and always been the despisers of all things true. Prolegomena is about the searching internally to find the answers that are often unwanted. It is about finding and rooting out motives. If we define theology as anything other than the study of God, and then use a term like “Theology Proper” as the designated aspect of theology that talks about God, then I have to assume that our understanding does not come from God at all.
Apostolic and prophetic theology is rooted and grounded in an intense zeal for the glory of God forever. It is always “of Him, through Him, and to Him”. Theology that is truly theology is grappled with on your knees in prayer, wrestling with the God who has revealed Himself, and not merely with the throes of church history or doctrinal history. To subjugate this is a denial of the very faith itself. Theology is patterned after Jacob, who walked with a limp after meeting God face-to-face. How are we to be any less intense about our own pursuit for truth? Can we honestly say that reading or studying various opinions, and settling the issue in our own mind to agree with one and not another, is actually studying theology? And can argumentation truly be sufficient in conviction? What I find more often is that what one can convince a man concerning, another can unconvince him. Conviction comes from sublime encounter, and anything less than tangible experience is ipso facto not theology.
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