"Theology" Defined

  

A Progressive Living Definition

Theology may be defined as the study of the characteristics of a God or gods. Some of the major issues of theology are as follows:

Number

Polytheists have postulated the existence of many gods, monotheists maintain there is but one God. Henotheists concede the possible existence of many gods, but advocate allegiance to one (typically supreme) God.

Power

Absolute theists, typically monotheists, have postulated one personal God with all of the qualities of perfection, namely, unlimited power (omnipotence), unqualified goodness, and unlimited knowledge (omniscience). Limited theists have postulated a God with unqualified goodness, but limited power.

Goodness

Theodicy is the branch of theology that attempts to account for the existence of evil in the presence of a God postulated to be omnipotent and benevolent.

Epistemological Relationship to Man

Naturalistic theologians attempt to derive knowledge of God from what we know of the world. Kerygmatic theologicans argue that knowledge of God is initiated by God in revelation.

In the view of secular humanism, theology is unduly speculative. The fundamental problem is epistemological (and has little to do with such issues as, for example, evolution theory). The concern is that gods, if they exist, cannot be directly observed, while the other means of knowing gods (intuition, ecstatic experience, trance, drugs, visions, revelation, etc.) are not regarded as being highly reliable or credible, having produced wildly conflicting results. Faith, the acceptance of beliefs in the absence of direct evidence, could lead to belief in anything whatever because it doesn't provide for reality testing. For a more detailed discussion of issues of evidence, see Epistemology under Philosophy.

However, in the view of religious humanism, the secular humanist is attempting to prove a negative—nearly always impossible.

In practical terms, this debate between the secular and the religious is rather less important than ordinarily assumed. For a discussion, see: Atheism and Theism: Two Paths to the Same Issues Concerning Values.