I've come to believe that this question is critical for any follower of Christ to answer. For many, the ubiquitous authors Grenz and Olson immediately come to mind, will tell us that "everyone is a theologian." I'm not sure if I agree with that statement, but nevertheless it begs the all important question, what then is theology? I found the following anecdote, to which I am indebted to Father Alexander Golitzin, extremely helpful.
The standard Lexicon for classical Greek (Liddell and Scott), despite voluminous entries spanning pages and pages of miniscule type, lists only two definitions for theologia as used by the classical writers: 1. stories about the gods; and 2. rational discourse about divinity. We might identify our own thoughts with one of these two definitions. However, the standard Patristic Lexicon (covering the language of the Greek Fathers of the early centuries of the church) has five to six pages of entries following theologia. Theology was obviously a rich word to the Fathers, and one which acquired a number of different senses. The definitions take on a hierarchy of importance. To summarize, they are (in ascending order of importance): 1. rational discourse about divinity; 2. Holy Scripture (sometimes called "The Theology"); 3. the liturgy of both the angels and the church on earth (in other words, worship); 4. the visio dei or vision of God; and 5. Trinity, the highest form of theology.
What strikes me about the Fathers' use of theologia is that our place, if we have a place at all, is at the very bottom of this list, the rational discourse. But this rational discourse does not exist for its own benefit, a fact we can often forget in our loquaciousness. The purpose of the theology we do, insofar as it has a purpose, is merely to lead people to the higher forms - the Scriptures and the liturgy - where the Triune God will be experienced and seen. A very good reminder to all of us who aspire to be theologians.
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Jackson, great to see you posting buddy. I am right now doing an independent study with Pasquerello on Anglican Theology. We talked about the Book of Common Prayer how it recovered or re-emphasized the idea that Prayer and Theology go together. Basically the idea was if you want to know what the Church of England believes look at how we pray. Only later did articles of religion come along. It is also interesting that the first 5 articles in the prayer book are about the Trinity and God, Then comes Scripture and finally humanity. Also you can check out my blog MattPurmort.blogspot.com
Matt- Sounds like an interesting study. What you mention about the use of the Book of Common Prayer in the Anglican church, you may know, was how all the Fathers understood theology - "lex orandi, lex credendi" (the law of prayer is the law of belief). They looked to their liturgy and their worship to understand what it is that they believed. And they were reciting the Trinitarian baptismal formula long before the Trinity ever was officially expressed in creedal form.
It reminds me of something Dr. Green said in the first day of a class I had with him. He asked a student to pray and after he had done so, Dr. Green said: "I find that you can best discern a person's theology by the way he or she prays." I don't think he had another volunteer to pray all semester!
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