Systematic Theology (Three Volumes in One)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. PAET I. PBOLEGOMENA. CHAPTER I. IDEA OF THEOLOGY'. I. Definition.?Theology is the science of God and of the relations between God and the universe. Though the word ' theology' is sometimes employed in dogmatic writings to designate that single department of the science which treats of the divine nature and attributes, prevailing usage, since Abelard (A. D. 1079-1142) entitled his general treatise Theologia Christiana, has included under that term the whole range of Christian doctrine. Theology, therefore, gives account not only of God, but of those relations between God and the material and spiritual universe in view of which we speak of Creation, Providence, and Redemption. Jobn the Evangelist is called by the Fathers ' the theologian, ' because ho most fully treats of the Internal relations of the persons of the Trinity. Gregory Nazianzen (328) received this designation because he defended the deity of Christ against the Arians. For a modern instance of this use of the term ' theology' in the narrow sense, see title of Dr. Hodge's first volume: Systematic Theology; Vol. 1: Thenlngy. But theology is not simply the science of God, nor even the science of God and man. It also gives account of the relations between God and the universe. Yet theology does not properly include other sciences?It merely uses their results; see Wardlaw, Theology, 1: 1,2. Physical science is not a part of theology. As a mere physicist, Humboldt did not need to mention the name of God in his Cosmos (but see Cosmos, 2: 413, where Humboldt says: Psalm 104 presents an image of the whole Cosmos ). On the definition of theology, see Luthardt, Compendium der Dngmatik, 1, 2; Blunt, Diet. Doct. and Hist. Theology, art.: Theology: H. B. Smith, Introd....… (more)