Bruno, list, It occurred to me that I ought not merely to "wing it" on the meaning of "theology" as a word. There are various places online to look it up, but this is an interesting one and, anyway, some may find this to be an introduction to a good resource.
>From the Century Dictionary http://www.global-language.com/century/ (About the really rather useful Century Dictionary: http://www.leoyan.com/century-dictionary.com/why.php ) (Requires installing software) Century Dictionary, Vol. VIII, Page 6274, Theologus to Theorbo (DjVu) http://www.leoyan.com/century-dictionary.com/08/index08.djvu?djvuopts&page=66 , (DjVu Highlighted), (Java) (JPEG) theology (the¯-ol' o¯-ji), n. [< ME. theologie, < OF. theologie, F. théologie = Pr. teologia = Sp. teología = Pg. theologia = It. teologia = D. G. theologie = Sw. Dan. teologi, < LL. theologia, < Gr. theología, a speaking concerning God, < theológos, speaking of God (see theologue), < theós, god, + légein, speak.] The science concerned with ascertaining, classifying, and systematizing all attainable truth concerning God and his relation to the universe; the science of religion; religious truth scientifically stated. The ancient Greeks used the word to designate the history of their gods; early Christian writers applied it to the doctrine of the nature of God; Peter Abelard, ill the twelfth century, first began to employ it to denote scientific instruction concerning God and the divine life. Theology differs from religion as the science of any subject differs from the subject matter itself. Religion in the broadest sense is a life of right affections and right conduct toward God; theology is a scientific knowledge of God and of the life which reverence and allegiance toward him require. Theology is divided, in reference to the sources whence the knowledge is derived, into natural theology, which treats of God and divine things in so far as their nature is disclosed through human consciousness, through the material creation, and through the moral order discernible in the course of history apart from specific revelation, and revealed theology, which treats of the same subject-matter as mad! e known in the scriptures of the 0ld and the New Testament. The former is theistic merely; the latter is Christian, and includes the doctrine of salvation by Christ, and of future rewards and punishments. In reference to the ends sought and the methods of treatment, theology is again divided into theoretical theology, which treats of the doctrines and principles of the divine life for the purpose of scientific and philosophical accuracy, and practical theology, which treats of the duties of the divine life for immediate practical ends. Theology is further divided, according to subject-matter and methods, into various branches, of which the principal are given below. Ac Theologie hath tened me ten score tymes, The more I muse there-inne the mistier it seemeth. Piers Plowman (B), x. 180. Theology, what is it but the science of things divine? Hooker, Eccles. Polity, iii. 8. Theology, properly and directly, deals with notional apprehension; religion with imaginative. J. H. Newman, Gram. of Assent, p. 115. --Ascetical theology. See ascetical. --Biblical theology, that branch of theology which has for its object to set forth the knowledge of God and the divine life as gathered from a large study of the Bible, as opposed to a merely minute study of particular texts on the one hand, and to a mere use of philosophical methods on the other. --Dogmatic theology, that department of theology which has for its object a connected and scientific statement of theology as a complete and harmonious science as authoritatively held and taught by the church. --Exegetical theology. See exegetical. --Federal theology, a system of theology based upon the idea of two covenants between God and man--the covenant of nature, or of works, before the fall, by which eternal life was promised to man on condition of his perfect obedience to the moral law, and the covenant of grace, after the fall, by which salvation and eternal life are promised to man by the free grace of God. Kloppenburg, professor of theology at Franeker in the Netherlands (died 1652), originated the system, and it was perfected (1648) by John Koch (Cocceius), successor of Kloppenburg in the same chair. See Cocceian. --Fundamental theology, that branch of systematic theology which vindicates man's knowledge of God by the investigation of its grounds and sources in general, and of the trustworthiness of the Christian revelation in particular, and which therefore includes both natural theology and the evidences of Christianity. --Genevan theology. See Genevan. --Historical theology, the science of the history and growth of Christian doctrines. --Homiletic theology. Same as homiletics. --Liberal theology. See liberal Christianity, under liberal. --Mercersburg theology, a school of evangelical philosophy and theology which arose about the year 1836, in the theological seminary of the German Reformed Church at Mercersburg in Pennsylvania. It laid emphasis on the incarnation as the center of theology, on development as the law of church life, on the importance of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper as divinely appointed means of grace, and on Christian education of the youth of the church. --Monumental theology. See monumental. --Moral theology, a phrase nearly equivalent to moral philosophy, denoting that branch of practical theology which treats of ethics, or man's duties to his fellow-men. The science of Moral Theology, as it was at first called, and as it is still designated by the Roman Catholic divines, was undoubtedly constructed, to the full knowledge of its authors, by taking principles of conduct from the system of the Church, and by using the language and methods of jurisprudence for their expression and expansion. Maine, Ancient Law, p. 337. --Mystical theology. See mystical. --Natural theology. See def. above. --New England theology, that phase or those phases of Puritan theological thought characteristic of the Congregational and Calvinistic churches of New England. --New theology, a name popularly given to a modern phase of Protestant evangelical theology, especially as found in the New England Congregational churches. As an intellectual movement it has much in common with the Broad Church movement in the Church of England. In its philosophy the new theology partakes of Greek, the old theology of Latin Christian thought. --Pastoral theology. See pastoral. --Polemical theology, the learning and practice involved in the endeavor to defend by scientific and philosophical arguments one system of theology, or to controvert the positions of other and opposing theological systems. --Rational theology. See rational. --Scholastic theology. See scholastic. --Speculative theology, a system of theology which proceeds upon human speculation, as opposed to one which proceeds upon an acceptance of knowledge restricted to what has been revealed in the Bible. --Systematic theology, a general term for all arranged and classified knowledge of God and his relations to the universe, having for its object the vindication of the reality of man's knowledge of God, in opposition to agnostic philosophy, by the investigation of the grounds and sources of such knowledge in general and of the trustworthiness of the Christian revelation in particular, and the ascertaining, formulating, and systematizing of all that is known respecting God and his relations to the universe, in such form as to make manifest its scientific trustworthiness. Systematic theology presupposes exegetical, Biblical, and historical theology, and is the basis of applied or practical theology. Systematic or Speculative theology... comprehends Apologetics, Dogmatics, Symbolics, Polemics, Ethics, and Statistics. Schaff; Christ and Christianity, p. 4.
