Theology:

The study of God is known as Theology is simple terms. It also includes the study of spirituality, experience, practice and religious faith. According to Augustine of Hippo, “theologia” which is the Latin equivalent of the word theology means the discussion or the reasoning which concerned about the Deity. In English theology is defined as the science of divine things. The term theology is used to mean various disciplines of various forms of discourse that are available in it. There are various forms of analysis and agreements used by the theologians in order to get a better explanation and understanding of the myriad religious topics. In various forms theology helps the theologian to under God in a better way. It helps the theologian to understand the religious traditions of him more truly; it helps the theologian to understand another religious tradition more truly; it helps the theologian to compare different religious tradition, to defend a religious tradition, to facilitate reformation in a particular tradition, to help in the propagation of a particular tradition, to address the present need or the present situation of a tradition, to draw the resources by exploring all the possible ways of interpreting the world and to explore the true nature of divinity without giving any reference to any kind of specific traditions in particular.

Reckoning the origin of the term theology it has been originated from the Greek term “theologia” which meant god and logos and later this term is translated into English as Theology. In 1362, the English equivalent of the term emerged. During the Patristic and the medieval Christian times the meaning term has influenced the Greeks and the Latin which on a later stage gave the sense of the word in English.

In Greek, the word theologia meant discourse on god. This was used around the fourth century by Plato in his book The Republic. Later the Latin writer Varro distinguished the three which was derived by Aristotle from Plato. The three forms were mathematike, theologike, and physike. Later by Varro these forms were distinguished as mythical which is concerned about the myths of the Greek gods, civil which is concerned about the duties and rites of the public religious observance, and rational which is the physical analysis of cosmology and gods.

The word theologos which is closely related to theology appears once in the biblical manuscripts. It comes in the revelation of John the theologos in the book of Revelation.

Questions:

• What is theology?
• What is the meaning of the theologia in Greek?