What is theology?

A Jesuit, Father Aidan Nichols, describes the theologian’s work very succinctly: The task of theology is the disciplined exploration of what is contained in revelation. 

That definition helpfully distinguishes between theology and the revelation that theology mines. Theology itself is not a revelation but a human endeavour. Inevitably, the humans who carry out this endeavour are people of their age and, to some extent, of their culture.

What constitutes revelation for conservative evangelicals? The 66 books commonly recognised as forming the Old and New Testaments.

Conservative evangelical theology is useful to anyone seeking to grow in their relationship with Jesus and seeking to live the Christian life (although I must admit, some theologians are more useful than others). Theologians have a twin focus – the historical development of Christian doctrines, and the challenges those doctrines face in the theologians’ own day.

A guide I have found particularly helpful is Dr David F Wells of Gordon Conwell Seminary, Boston, Massachusets. In 2008 I was asked to present a paper to a group of ministers introducing Wells’s four books, No Place for Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing Our Virtue and Above All Earthly Pow’rs. It’s here…