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Theology is the study and commentary on the existence and attributes of a god or gods, and of how that god or those gods relate to the world and, especially, to human existence and religious thought; more generally, it is the study of religious faith, practice, and experience, or of spirituality. It is sometimes contrasted with religious studies: theology is understood as the study of religion from an internal perspective (e.g., a perspective of commitment to that religion), and religious studies as the study of religion from an external (e.g., a secular) perspective.

Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument (philosophical, ethnographic, historical, spiritual and others) to help understand, explain, test, critique, defend or promote any of myriad religious topics. It might be undertaken to help the theologian:

among other things.

The word ''theology'' has classical Greek origins, but it was taken up in both Greek and Latin forms by Christian authors, and it is the history of the term in Christian contexts, particularly in the Latin West, that lies behind most contemporary usage, even though the term can now be used to speak of reasoned discourse within and about a variety of different religious traditions.

History of the term

The word ''theology'' comes from late middle English, from French ''théologie'', from Latin ''theologia'', from Greek θεολογία, ''theologia'', from θεός, ''theos'' or God + λόγος or ''logos'', ''words,'' ''sayings,'' ''discourse,'' or ''reason'' ( + suffix ια, ''ia'', ''state of,'' ''property of,'' ''place of''). The Greek word can be literally translated as ''talk about God or the divine,'' but the meaning of the word shifted as it was used (first in Greek and then in Latin) in European Christian thought in the Patristic period, the Middle Ages and Enlightenment, and then taken up more widely.

''Theology'' can also now be used in a derived sense to mean ''a system of theoretical principles; an (impractical or rigid) ideology.''

Christian Theology

Christian writers, working within the Hellenistic mold, began to use the term theology to describe their studies. It appears once in some biblical manuscripts, in the heading to the book of Revelation: ''apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy'', ''the revelation of John the ''theologos''.'' There, however, the word refers not to John the ''theologian'' in the modern English sense of the word but—using a slightly different sense of the root ''logos'', meaning not ''rational discourse'' but ''word'' or ''message,''—one who speaks the words of God, ''logoi toy theoy''.

Other Christian writers used this term with several different ranges of meaning.

Religions other than Christianity

In academic theological circles, there is some debate as to whether theology is an activity peculiar to the Christian religion, such that the word ''theology'' should be reserved for Christian theology, and other words used to name analogous discourses within other religious traditions. It is seen by some to be a term only appropriate to the study of religions that worship a deity (a ''theos''), and to presuppose belief in the ability to speak and reason about this deity (in ''logia'')—and so to be less appropriate in religious contexts that are organized differently (religions without a deity, or that deny that such subjects can be studied logically). (''Hierology'' has been proposed as an alternative, more generic term.)

Analogous discourses

Theology as an academic discipline

The history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as old as the history of such institutions themselves. For example, Taxila was an early centre of Vedic learning, possible from the 6th century BCE or earlier; the Platonic Academy founded in Athens in the 4th century BCE seems to have included theological themes in its subject matter; the Chinese Taixue delivered Confucian teaching from the 2nd century BCE; the School of Nisibis was a centre of Christian learning from the 4th century CE; Nalanda in India was a sight of Buddhist higher learning from at least the 5th or 6th century CE; and the Moroccan University of Al-Karaouine was a centre of Islamic learning from the 10th century, as was Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

Modern Western universities evolved from the monastic institutions and (especially) cathedral schools of Western Europe during the High Middle Ages (see, for instance, the University of Bologna, Paris University and Oxford University). From the beginning, Christian theological learning was therefore a central component in these institutions, as was the study of Church or Canon law): universities played an important role in training people for ecclesiastical offices, in helping the church pursue the clarification and defence of its teaching, and in supporting the legal rights of the church over against secular rulers. At such universities, theological study was initially closely tied to the life of faith and of the church: it fed, and was fed by, practices of preaching, prayer and celebration of the Mass.

During the High Middle Ages, theology was therefore the ultimate subject at universities, being named ''The Queen of the Sciences'' and serving as the capstone to the Trivium and Quadrivium that young men were expected to study. This meant that the other subjects (including Philosophy) existed primarily to help with theological thought.

Christian theology’s preeminent place in the university began to be challenged during the European Enlightenment, especially in Germany. other subjects gained in independence and prestige, and questions were raised about the place in institutions that were increasingly understood to be devoted to independent reason of a discipline that seemed to involve commitment to the authority of particular religious traditions.

Since the early nineteenth century, various different approaches have emerged in the West to theology as an academic discipline. Much of the debate concerning theology's place in the university or within a general higher education curriculum centres on whether theology's methods are appropriately theoretical and (broadly speaking) scientific or, on the other hand, whether theology requires a pre-commitment of faith by its practitioners, and whether such a commitment conflicts with academic freedom.

Theology and ministerial training

In some contexts, theology has been held to belong in institutions of Higher Education primarily as a form of professional training for Christian ministry. This was the basis on which Friedrich Schleiermacher, a liberal theologian, argued for the inclusion of theology in the new University of Berlin in 1810.

For instance, in Germany, theological faculties at State universities are typically tied to particular denominations, Protestant or Catholic, and those faculties will offer denominationally-bound (konfessionsgebundenes) degrees, and have denominationally-bound public posts amongst their faculty; as well as contributing ‘to the development and growth of Christian knowledge’ they ‘provide the academic training for the future clergy and teachers of religious instruction at German schools.’

In Britain the first universities in the country, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, began as federations of theological colleges founded by clergy and members of religious orders in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Similarly, in the U.S.A. several prominent colleges and universities were started in order to train Christian ministers in the U.S. Harvard, Georgetown University, Boston, Yale, Princeton,, Brown University, and Mercer University all had the theological training of clergy as a primary purpose at their foundation.

Seminaries and Bible colleges have continued this alliance between the academic study of theology and training for Christian ministry. The Chicago Theological Union, Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Creighton University of Omaha, University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, the University of San Francisco, Criswell College in Dallas, Southern Seminary in Louisville, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, Wheaton College and Graduate School in Wheaton, Illinois, Dallas Theological Seminary, and many other schools have influenced higher education in theology.

Theology and religious studies

In some contexts, following the Enlightenment challenge to its legitimacy, theology has evolved into (or been replaced by) religious studies. In such contexts, the primary forms of study are likely to include:

These studies normally involve studying the historical or contemporary practices or ideas of one or more religious traditions using intellectual tools and frameworks that are not themselves specifically tied to any religious tradition, but that are (normally) understood to be neutral or secular.