What Makes Theology Theological?
What distinguishes dogmatic judgment from history of religions, biblical studies, philosophy, or private conviction?
Theology is a second-order practice of judgment accountable to God’s self-communication and the church’s public confession.
This opening seminar asks what theologians are doing when they make a claim about God. It distinguishes theology from neutral description without turning confession into immunity from criticism. The aim is a disciplined account of authority, inference, and responsibility.
- 01
Distinguish confession, description, and dogmatic judgment
- 02
Identify the warrants inside a theological claim
- 03
State your own location without pretending to neutrality
- 01
The object gives the discipline its form
Theology is not defined first by religious subject matter but by the God to whom its speech claims to answer.
- 02
Faith seeking understanding
Prior commitment can discipline inquiry when it remains answerable to its object and corrigible in public reasoning.
- 03
Doctrine as a public judgment
A doctrine gathers scriptural patterns into a claim that orders Christian speech, worship, and action.
- 04
Situated, accountable, revisable
The theologian’s location is neither an embarrassment to hide nor a sovereign perspective to enthrone.