This was the question posed today in my first Introduction to Theology class. It seems like the answer to this question would be simple--"the study of God." But, wait a second! Though a correct academic definition, what does "the study of God" really mean? Here, the use of language is both a help and a barrier. Of course, we cannot understand our own thoughts without the definition language provides. But the careful use of language in defining anything as sensitive as "theology" is paramount to the success of any such definition.
I don't mean to presume that after one class period I really "get it." To be honest, there is a part of me that is more confused now than I was when she asked us to jot down a few thoughts. But here is one thought that stuck with me during our mini-brainstorming session:
Theology is the study of the interaction of God on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level with humankind and creation.
I honestly have no idea how this answer would be taken apart by a professor of systematic theology, but I do know this: it's the best I have at this point! Hopefully, over the course of this semester this definition will grow both clearer and fuzzier in the midst of my pursuit of theology. And let's face it--we're all in pursuit of theology. For many this journey is not intentional nor as definition-dependent as an academic quest towards understanding God, but the drive still exists. Whether the road trip is just beginning, stalled on the side of the road, experiencing twists and turns, or cruising down a normal stretch of highway, someday all of our journeys will end at God's throne room.
I read a passage the other day in Chesterton's Orthodoxy that I find a helpful companion in this journey:
"I wish to set forth my faith as particularly answering this double spiritual need, the need for that mixture of the familiar and the unfamiliar which Christendom has rightly named romance...the thing I propose to take as common ground between myself and any average reader is this desirability of an active and imaginative life, picturesque and full of a poetical curiosity, a life such as western man at any rate always seems to have desired."
I pray that in the midst of the academia--the reading, the writing, the studying, the struggling--this romantic theology will not lose its luster, but only grow in its ability to pique the imagination with thoughts of a God beyond human comprehension Who chooses to continue relating to humanity through the perichoresis (dance) of the Holy Trinity.
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