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Theology

What is Theology?​

Theology is the spiritual and academic study of God and what he communicates to humanity (this is called Revelation).

The word "Theology" comes from Greek:

  • Θεός ("theos") = "God"
  • λόγος ("logos") = "word"

So "Theo" + "logy" literally means "Words of God." This way of phrasing it contains an intentional double meaning: "Words of God" can mean "words about God," as in what we have to say and understand about God. It can also mean "words from God," as in what God has to say and what we can therefore understand about everything else.

I think of Theology as the starting place where all other understanding begins (but not everyone would agree with that).

It can be helpful (if not always perfectly accurate) to think of Theology as a tree with branches. Different people group the branches of Theology differently (and that's ok—see the section at the bottom of this page). I like to think of Theology as having the following branches:

Of God:

Of God's other Revelation:

Of Application:

Topics in Theology​