Introduction to Christian Theologies

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Christianity is the largest religion in the world. Christians have been around for almost 2000 years, and in that time have developed a highly complex discipline of theoretical reflection on their beliefs and practices. This discipline is called theology, a term deriving from a Greek phrase meaning "talk about God." Theologians are often engaged in describing what Christians believe, but are also often arguing over what Christians should believe. Christian theologians, then, are people who endeavor to talk about God and things related to God as understood by Christians.

The ways in which theologians describe and argue about Christian belief and practice are diverse and often highly complicated. This course is designed to give a student a basic idea of the different ways of doing theology in the Christian tradition, to introduce them to some of the major names in the history of Christian theology, and to provide a sampling of common topics in theology and what various theologians argue under such headings.

First, it is important to clarify some aspects of this course:

• This course addresses theology as an academic discipline. If theology is simply talk about God and things related to God, then anyone with thoughts about religion is, in a sense, a theologian. However, approaching theology as an academic discipline means practicing theology in a highly theoretical and disciplined way in community with professional scholars, which also necessitates learning the rarefied language of that community. Academic jargon will be common, but a student will hopefully have basic understanding of this jargon by the end of the course.
• This course is not about Biblical Studies. Some people misunderstand theology to be explaining what the Bible says about any given subject. Biblical Studies, however, is a separate discipline with its own methods and history that intersects rather little with theology as an academic discipline. Additionally, theologians will have different kinds and amounts of interest in and commitment to the Bible as an authority.
• This course aims to be denominationally neutral. While it is impossible to ignore the reality of different denominations of Christianity, which are highly diverse in belief in practice, this course is not primarily about different doctrinal traditions; rather, it deals with types of theological methodologies that are found in most denominations and with topics that are dealt with across denominations.

Lessons (A Prospective List):

Systematic Theology

Intro to Systematic Theology

Dogmatic Theology

Philosophical Theology

Constructive/Contextual Theology

Intro to Constructive/Contextual Theology

Liberation Theology

Feminist Theology

Queer Theology

Common Topics

The Trinity: Who is God?

Soteriology: What is Salvation?

Ecclesiology: What is the Church?

Eschatology: Will the World End?