Six Types of Theology

C'mon, are there really six types of theology?

Well, kinda, and more! And that's why we need to look at it, not least because there are some ways of thinking about God that are parading around as a theology, while being more like idolatry or fantasy. So, let me give you a rundown of six types of theology: four are good, two are bad!  

But before we get into the "types" let me offer a brief word about the word "theology" itself. "-oligies" are areas of study, and "theo" means "god", so when we put it together we get the Study of God.

Theology is not a special area of study for serious Christians, it bread and butter. In order to be a Christian you must in some sense know God, such as who He is and what He has done.   It is the perpetual expectation in the scriptures that God's people will seek to know God and what He has said. For instance, Paul prays for the Colossians to grow in the knowledge of God (Col 1:10), and Peter commissions the chruch to "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Pe 3:18).  

Theology is what we're doing every time we open our Bibles! We will have varying levels of understanding and study among us, but we should all desire to know God more fully, and that comes through His word.  

Now when we come to talk about "types" of theology, we're talking about different ways to get to the truth, or different ways to interpret the revelation of God. I ain't no academic, so I'm probably going to fumble the specific distinctions that scholars like to make in this area. So, just take this as an casual introduction.  

Presuppositional Theology

Having just mentioned the fact that there is academic distinctions around types of theology, let me undermine my own words by introducing a type that I just made up. There may be a better word to describe this, but this makes a clear point (Also, don't confuse this with presuppositional apologetics, which is a whole other thing).  

Presuppositional theology is what happens when somone imports their own ideas, and uses them as the guide to understand God. It is the classic way to make a god in one's own image. This kind of theology is characterised by statements that include "I couldn't beleive in a god who...". They pre-suppose who God is, then look for ways to make the Bible fit their own vision.  

An example of this in action would be: I think Jesus has chicken wings. So I go looking, and, find a verse that says that he does have chicken wings (Ma 23:37), so now my belief is settled.  

I'm sure you can see how much of a problem this is! It puts people in the driving seat, and relies on a smattering of proof-texts to create a idolatrous view of God. Some us do this by accident, but it is best left alone!    

Worldview Theology

This is another term I made up, but bear with me. I'm using "worldview theology" as a catch-all for many of the new types of theology that have appeared in recent years. To name a few, you may have heard of feminist theology, or black theology, or even queer theology.   All of these ways of thinking about God are filtered through worldview lenses that are foreign to the scriptures themselves. Much like the presuppositional theology, this way of understanding God requires the "studier" to impose something onto the scriptures to extract their meaning.  

One of the truly awful assumptions that these worldview theologies share, is that you cannot get to the truth unless you come from one of these groups. For example, you must have the lived experience of one of these worldviews in order to be able to "do" their theology. It means that somehow your ethnicity, or gender, or history, experience, etc. somehow unlocks truth or insight from the text in a way that others can't do.   This is a gnostic pattern. It basically says that you have to be initiated into some special group in order to gain true knowledge of God. Obviously this is heretical, and the principle behind it has been dealt with in history.  

Proponents of these new theologies are not interested in submitting themselves to the True God, but finding one that suits their own passions or gets them academic praise.

Biblical Theology

Now that we've dealt with the bad ones, lets talk about the good stuff!   The first and foundational theology is called "biblical". This is unfortunate naming, because all good theology is trying to be biblical!  

Biblical theology is when we understand the meaning of God's revelation in it's historical and narrative context. The scriptures were delivered to a particular people, in a particular place, at a particular time. If we want to know what God was saying to them, we need to take into account who those people were, where they were and when they were. We also need to appreciate the genre of writing, and how the individual texts fit into the broader picture of the whole Bible.  

More or less, this type of theology is trying to get a wholistic picture of what God was saying to the original hearers and how that fits with the rest of the Bible. Only then will we be in a position to understand what God is saying to his people today.   Biblical theology helps us understand why we obey New Testament commands but don't keep Old Testament festivals. It also helps us trace the development of themes across the pages of the Bible, like the Tree of Life, or atonement.  

For many Christians this is what they hear every week from the pulpit, but it is sadly lacking in too many places. That said, this still can be misused, especially if  it used to explain away heavy-duty commands of God.  

Historical Theology

This is about the formation or development of theology across history from the days of the Apostles to now. This is not so much about creating new teachings about God, as it is about how Christians down through the ages have grown in understanding.  

What does this look like? Well for instance in the first few centuries of Church growth, it took them a while to get a clear understanding about God as three persons in one God - the doctrine of the Trinity. So, this teaching came from the unchanging truth in the scripture, but it was confirmed in history.   Same goes for the doctrine of Salvation by Faith Alone. It was hashed out during the Reformation, but it was truth already revealed by God in the Bible.

The study of Historical Theology deals with the perpetual pattern of the Church reading the Bible, and then figuring out how that applies, and weeding out the heretics along the way.  

Systematic Theology

Unsurprisingly systematic theology systematises the truth about God! These can be incredibly useful in some circumstances.   This way of thinking about God is usually topical, and often takes into account the historical theology that has come before, but it relies on good biblical theology to work properly. So in some sense, this is the topical union of biblical and historical theology.  

The topics covered can be anything from Angels to the Adamic covenant, Eschatology to Election, Sin to Spiritual Gifts. All ordered neatly, and collating the relevant information from across the Bible and history into helpful summaries. 

Practical Theology

This is the part where we ask, "What do we do with all this?" This area mainly looks at how we apply or live out what we have learned from God. It is trying to understand how the rubber meets the road in Christian living in the present day.    

And there we are! A brief overview of 6 types of theology. It may be a little confusing, but let me summarise a good approach to theology in this way:

• Steer clear of imposing views onto God's word,
• We need to study what God said in context in order to understand the meaning,
• Christians throughout history have helpfully clarified good teaching,
• Systematising theology can be helpful,
• Theology is ultimately for knowing our God and living in faithfulness before him, so the truth needs to engage with real life.

I hope that's helpful!