Transcript 공통적인 종교의 속성 - All for Jesus!

Theology (1)
Lecture Part I: Studying God
Jintae Kim, PhD
Alliance Theological Seminary
Nyack, NY 10960
(845) 770-5762
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://all4jesus.net
Chapter 1
What is theology?
Common Features of
Religion (Christian
Theology, 18)
(1) Belief in a Supreme Being or
Concept
(2) It involves a world-life view.
(3) A Life Style based upon the view
What is religion? (19-20)
Definition
Doctrine
Feeling
Remarks
The middle ages through
18’th century, particularly
in the West. A set of belief.
Philosophy.
Friedrich Schleiermacher.
19’th c. through 20’th c.
Morality
Albert Ritschl, “What is
Christianity?”
All of
these
Doctrine, Religious feeling,
Ethical dimension
Religion and Theology (21)

The actual livingout and personal
practice of
religion,
including the
holding of
doctrinal beliefs,
occur on the level
of primary
experience.

Theology is the
second-level
activity. It
concerns with
describing,
analyzing,
criticizing, and
organizing the
doctrines.
The Definition of Theology
(Introducing…,16)
Source:
Biblical
The primary source of its content
is the canonical Scriptures of the
Old and New Testaments using the
tools and methods of biblical
research.
Method: (1)
Systematic
It draws upon the whole of the
Bible to coalesce the varied
teachings into some type of
harmonious or coherent whole.
(2) Philosophical Relates to the issues of general
culture and learning.
Application: (1) Without distorting the biblical
Contemporary materials, it uses language,
concepts , and thought forms
that make some sense in the
context of the present time.
(2)
Practical.
Theology relates to living
rather than merely to belief.
Theological Studies
Biblical Studies
Historical Studies
Doctrinal Studies
Practical Studies
Biblical Theology
Historical Theology
Systematic Theology: Scripture, God,
man, Sin, Christ, Salvation, Church,
Last Things (8 Loci)
Philosophical Theology
The Necessity for Theology
(17)
(1) Is there really a need to study doctrine?
(2) Isn’t it sufficient if I simply love Jesus?
(3) Doesn’t it just cause division among
Christians?
3 Reasons to study theology
(17)
(1) Correct doctrinal beliefs are essential to
the relationship between the believer and
God.
(2) because of the connection between truth
and experience.
(3) because there are many secular and
religious systems of thought that compete
for our devotion these days.
2 Questions - Starting Point of
Theology
(1) Should theology begin with proving the
existence of God?
(2) Can we do theology without examining
the the nature of revelation in the
Scripture?
A. H. Strong: “The idea of God is a first
truth. It is a rational intuition. It is not a
piece of knowledge written on the soul,
but an assumption which is so basic that
all other knowledge depends upon it.”
3 Presuppositions in doing
theology
(1) God exists: This point is assumed
as a first truth or established by an
empirical proof.
(2) God has specially revealed himself
in the Bible.
(3) This special revelation must be
investigated in order to determine
what God has revealed.
Theology vs Science
Augustine He preferred the term sapientia
(wisdom) to scientia (knowledge).
Sciences dealt with temporal things,
wisdom related to the eternal matters,
specifically to God as the highest good.
Thomas
Theology came to be thought of as the
Aquinas
queen of the sciences. It is a derived
science.
Karl Barth He argued vigorously for the autonomy
of theology.
6 Criteria of H. Scholz for
theology to be science






It must be free from internal contradiction.
There must be a unity or coherence in its
propositions.
Its statements must be susceptible to testing.
It must make no assertion which is physically and
biologically impossible.
It must be free from prejudice.
Its propositions should be capable of being broken
up into axioms and theorems and susceptible of
proof on that basis.
Theology as a science
Critique of Sholz

(1) The definition which virtually
restricts science to natural science,
and which then tends to restrict
knowledge to science, is too narrow.
5 Evidences for theology as
science (Doctrine, 35)
(1) It has a definite subject matter to
investigate.
(2) It deals with objective matters. It
does not merely give expression to
the subjective feelings of the
theologian or of the Christian.
(3) It has a definite methodology for
investigating its subject matter.
(4) It has a method for verifying is
propositions.
(5) There is coherence among the
propositions of its subject matter.
Common Grounds with other
sciences (Doctrines,35;
Introducing, 18)
(1) It is subject to certain basic
principles or axioms.
(2) It involves communicability.
(3) It employs methods employed by
other specific disciplines.
(4) It shares some subject matter with
other disciplines.
Why The Bible?(Doctrines, 36-7)
(1) Christianity is a movement which
follows Jesus Christ. We would then
logically look to him to state what is
to be believed and what is to be done.
We have very little information
outside of the Bible regarding what
Jesus taught and did.
(2) In making the Bible the primary or
supreme source of our understanding,
we are not completely excluding all
other sources. But these will be
secondary to the Bible.
Theology and Philosophy
5 Views on
Relation between Theology
and Philosophy
(Doctrines, 40-42)
(1) No relation – Tertullian (c. 160230), "What is there in common
between Athens and Jerusalem?"
(2) Theology elucidated by philosophy:
Augustine
(3) Theology established by Philosophy
: Thomas Aquinas
(4) Theology judged by philosophy:
Deism. Modernists.
(5) Theology supplied by philosophy:
Hegel
Some 20’th Century
Philosophies
(Doctrines, 42-53)
(1) Pragmatism - American, John Dewey, James
Stuart Mill
(2) Existentialism
(3) Analytical Philosophy: Bertrand Russell, Comte
(4) Process Theology - Alfred North Whitehead
(5) Deconstruction - postmodernity
Pragmatism
(1) American: John Dewey, James Stuart Mill
(2) No absolute truth. Truth experiencing
consequences. Emphasis on the present.
(3) Not “Is it true that God exists?” but “Is it
useful to believe that God exists?”
Existentialism
(1) Origin: Soren Kierkegaard – Reacting
against Hegel’s rational philosophy and
Nietzsche’s atheistic emphasis upon the
human will.
(2) Philosophers: De Cartes, Martin
Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, Karl Jaspers
(3) “Is it?” is far more important than “What
is it?”
Limitation of human senses, Focusing in an
individual, freedom, subjectivity.
(4) Influence to Karl Barth, Emil Brunner,
Paul Tillich and Rudolph Bultmann
Analytical Philosophy
(1) Logical Positivism - Bertrand Russell,
Comte
(2) While traditional Philosophy focuses on
“What is right, What is true, and What is
beautiful?”, A.P. focuses on “What do you
mean by that?”
(3) Logical Positivism relying only on
mathematical data and empirical data.
Process Theology
(1) Alfred North Whitehead
(2) Change is the key to understanding of
reality, in fact, that change is reality.
Deconstruction
(1) Derrida. Postmodernity
(2) A rejection of any attempt to discover and
to express an underlying pattern of reality.
The 2 Principles in the Use of
Philosophy (Doctrines, 53-8)
(1) Revelation rather than philosophy
supplies the content of our theology.
(2) Philosophy is a thought process, a
thinking activity rather than a body of
truths. The methodology is supplied by
philosophy.
The Method of Theology
(Doctrines, 59-80)
The Theological Scene Today
(1) The tendency for theologies to have
brief life-spans.
(2) The demise of great schools of theology
as such.
(3) Disappearance of theological giants.
3 Lessons
(1) We should beware of too close an
identification with any current mood
in culture.
(2) A degree of eclecticism is both
possible and desirable.
(3) It is important to maintain a degree
of independence in one’s approach
to doing theology.
The Process of Doing Theology
(Introducing, 19-22)
(1) Collection of the Biblical materials.
Identify all the relevant biblical passages
dealing with the topic being investigated
and then to interpret them very carefully
using the very best of theological tools and
methods.
(2) Unification of the Biblical materials.
This assumes the unity and coherence
among the several biblical materials and
biblical witnesses.
(3) Analysis of meanings of biblical
teachings – Historical meaning
(4) Examination of Historical
Treatments
(5) Identification of the Essence of the
Doctrine – Divine meaning
(6) Illumination from Sources Beyond the
Bible: Natural sciences, particularly
geology; archaeology.
(7) Contemporary Expression of the Doctrine.
Once we have determined the abiding
essence or permanent content of the
doctrine (divine meaning), we must express
it in a fashion that is reasonably accessible
to persons of our day.
(8) Development of a Central
Interpretive Motif
(9) Stratification of the Topics.
Chapter 2
Contemporizing the Christian
Message
3 Views on Contemporizing
(Introducing, 25-26)
(1) We should present biblical concepts in
biblical terminology.
(2) Portions of the biblical view are
obsolete and therefore must be
eliminated.
(3) They desire to retain the essential
content of the biblical teaching and
restate it or translate it into more
modern concepts, to find contemporary
equivalents for the concepts drawn from
the biblical era.
The Locus of Permanence in
Christianity (26-27)
The question is how
unchangeable factor.

to
identify
the
(1) Institutional – Roman Catholic
What is permanent and persistent
throughout time is the institution of
the Catholic church.
(2) Experience – H. E. Fosdick (Social
Gospel)
Abiding experiences which are
expressed in changing categories.
Idea of evolution.
(3) Certain actions or a certain type of
living – Kant, Ritschl, W.
Rauschenbusch.
It is the teachings of Jesus regarding
ethical living and the kingdom of God.
(4) Doctrine – J. G. Machen
Two approaches to
Contemporizing Theology

transformer? or translator?

(1) If doctrine is the unchangeable
factor in Christianity, it should be
apparent that we advocate the
approach of the translators. The
process, however, is not as simple as
finding 21’st c. equivalents for 1’st c.
concepts.
(2) Difficulty in translation - It is
impossible to find a perfect semantic
equivalent in another language.
(3) The contemporizing of the Bible
messages is often explained as a
method used in a teaching of
languages.

(4) Then we should distinguish
between the permanent or abiding
essence of a concept and its
temporary forms of expression. (ex:
God dwells in heaven 
transcendence of God)
The 5 Criteria of
Permanence (28-30)
(1) Constancy across cultures
(2) Universal setting
(3) A recognized permanent factor as a
basis
(4) Indissoluble link with an essential
experience
(5) Final position within progressive
revelation