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Augustine of Hippo (354–430), Christian theologian. His writing on free will and original
sin remains influential in Western Christendom.
Albert the Great (1193/1206–1280), patron saint of Roman Catholic theologians
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Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as an
academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries.[1]

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External links
Etymology[edit]
Main article: History of theology
Theology translates into English from the Greek theologia (θεολογία)
which derived from Τheos (Θεός), meaning "God", and -logia (-λογία),[2]
meaning "utterances, sayings, or oracles" (a word related to logos [λόγος],
meaning "word, discourse, account, or reasoning") which had passed into
Latin as theologia and into French as théologie. The English equivalent
"theology" (Theologie, Teologye) had evolved by 1362.[3] The sense the
word has in English depends in large part on the sense the Latin and Greek
equivalents had acquired in patristic and medieval Christian usage,
although the English term has now spread beyond Christian contexts.
Definition[edit]
Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as "reasoning or
discussion concerning the Deity";[4] Richard Hooker defined "theology" in
English as "the science of things divine".[5] The term can, however, be used
for a variety of different disciplines or fields of study.[6]
Theology begins with the assumption that the divine exists in some form,
such as in physical, supernatural, mental, or social realities, and that
evidence for and about it may be found via personal spiritual experiences
and/or historical records of such experiences as documented by others.
The study of these assumptions is not part of theology proper but is found
in the philosophy of religion, and increasingly through the psychology of
religion and neurotheology. Theology then aims to structure and understand
these experiences and concepts, and to use them to derive normative
prescriptions for how to live our lives.
Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument (experiential,
philosophical, ethnographic, historical, and others) to help understand,
explain, test, critique, defend or promote any myriad of religious topics. As
in philosophy of ethics and case law, arguments often assume the
existence of previously resolved questions, and develop by making
analogies from them to draw new inferences in new situations.
The study of theology may help a theologian more deeply understand their
own religious tradition,[7] another religious tradition,[8] or it may enable them
to explore the nature of divinity without reference to any specific tradition.
Theology may be used to propagate,[9] reform,[10] or justify a religious
tradition or it may be used to compare,[11] challenge (e.g. biblical criticism),
or oppose (e.g. irreligion) a religious tradition or world-view. Theology might
also help a theologian to address some present situation or need through a
religious tradition,[12] or to explore possible ways of interpreting the world.[13]
History[edit]
Greek theologia (θεολογία) was used with the meaning "discourse on god"
in the fourth century BC by Plato in The Republic, Book ii, Ch. 18.[14]
Aristotle divided theoretical philosophy into mathematike, physike and
theologike, with the last corresponding roughly to metaphysics, which, for
Aristotle, included discourse on the nature of the divine.[15]
Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three
forms of such discourse: mythical (concerning the myths of the Greek
gods), rational (philosophical analysis of the gods and of cosmology) and
civil (concerning the rites and duties of public religious observance).[16]
Theologos, closely related to theologia, appears once in some biblical
manuscripts, in the heading to the Book of Revelation: apokalypsis ioannoy
toy theologoy, "the revelation of John the theologos". There, however, the
word refers not to John the "theologian" in the modern English sense of the
word but—using a slightly different sense of the root logos, meaning not
"rational discourse" but "word" or "message"—one who speaks the words of
God, logoi toy theoy.[17]
Some Latin Christian authors, such as Tertullian and Augustine, followed
Varro's threefold usage,[18] though Augustine also used the term more
simply to mean 'reasoning or discussion concerning the deity'[4]
In patristic Greek Christian sources, theologia could refer narrowly to
devout and inspired knowledge of, and teaching about, the essential nature
of God.[19]
The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to
denote a subdivision of philosophy as a subject of academic study, dealing
with the motionless, incorporeal reality (as opposed to physica, which deals
with corporeal, moving realities).[20] Boethius' definition influenced medieval
Latin usage.[21]
In scholastic Latin sources, the term came to denote the rational study of
the doctrines of the Christian religion, or (more precisely) the academic
discipline which investigated the coherence and implications of the
language and claims of the Bible and of the theological tradition (the latter
often as represented in Peter Lombard's Sentences, a book of extracts from
the Church Fathers).[22]
In the Renaissance, especially with Florentine Platonist apologists of
Dante's poetics, the distinction between "poetic theology" (theologia
poetica) and "revealed" or Biblical theology serves as steppingstone for a
revival of philosophy as independent of theological authority.
It is in this last sense, theology as an academic discipline involving rational
study of Christian teaching, that the term passed into English in the
fourteenth century,[23] although it could also be used in the narrower sense
found in Boethius and the Greek patristic authors, to mean rational study of
the essential nature of God – a discourse now sometimes called theology
proper.[24]
From the 17th century onwards, it also became possible to use the term
theology to refer to study of religious ideas and teachings that are not
specifically Christian (e.g., in the term natural theology which denoted
theology based on reasoning from natural facts independent of specifically
Christian revelation,[25]) or that are specific to another religion (see below).
"Theology" can also now be used in a derived sense to mean "a system of
theoretical principles; an (impractical or rigid) ideology".[26]
In various religions[edit]
The term theology has been deemed by some as only appropriate to the
study of religions that worship a supposed deity (a theos), i.e. more widely
than monotheism; and presuppose a belief in the ability to speak and
reason about this deity (in logia). They suggest the term is less appropriate
in religious contexts that are organized differently (religions without a single
deity, or that deny that such subjects can be studied logically). ("Hierology"
has been proposed as an alternative, more generic term.[27])
Abrahamic religions[edit]
Judaism[edit]

Sculpture of the Jewish theologian Maimonides

In Jewish theology, the historical absence of political authority has meant
that most theological reflection has happened within the context of the
Jewish community and synagogue, rather than within specialized academic
institutions, including though Rabbinical discussion of Jewish law and
Jewish Biblical commentaries.[28] Historically it has been very active, and
highly significant for Christian and Islamic theology and well as for
Judaism.[citation needed]
Christianity[edit]

Thomas Aquinas was the greatest Christian theologian of the Middle Ages.
Christian theology is the study of Christian belief and practice. Such study
concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and the New
Testament as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use
biblical exegesis, rational analysis and argument. Theology might be
undertaken to help the theologian better understand Christian tenets, to
make comparisons between Christianity and other traditions, to defend
Christianity against objections and criticism, to facilitate reforms in the
Christian church, to assist in the propagation of Christianity, to draw on the
resources of the Christian tradition to address some present situation or
need, or for a variety of other reasons.
Islam[edit]

Allamah Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi was the most influential Islamic theologian of the 20th
century.[29]
Islamic theological discussion that parallels Christian theological discussion
is named "Kalam"; the Islamic analogue of Christian theological discussion
would more properly be the investigation and elaboration of Sharia or Fiqh.
"Kalam ... does not hold the leading place in Muslim thought that theology
does in Christianity. To find an equivalent for 'theology' in the Christian
sense it is necessary to have recourse to several disciplines, and to the
usul al-fiqh as much as to kalam." (L. Gardet)[30]
Indian religions[edit]
Buddhism[edit]
Some academic inquiries within Buddhism, dedicated to the investigation of
a Buddhist understanding of the world, prefer the designation Buddhist
philosophy to the term Buddhist theology, since Buddhism lacks the same
conception of a theos. Jose Ignacio Cabezon, who argues that the use of
"theology" is appropriate, can only do so, he says, because "I take theology
not to be restricted to discourse on God ... I take 'theology' not to be
restricted to its etymological meaning. In that latter sense, Buddhism is of
course atheological, rejecting as it does the notion of God."[31]
Hinduism[edit]
Within Hindu philosophy, there is a tradition of philosophical speculation on
the nature of the universe, of God (termed "Brahman", Paramatma and
Bhagavan in some schools of Hindu thought) and of the Atman (soul). The
Sanskrit word for the various schools of Hindu philosophy is Darshana
(meaning "view" or "viewpoint"). Vaishnava theology has been a subject of
study for many devotees, philosophers and scholars in India for centuries. A
large part of its study lies in classifying and organizing the manifestations of
thousands of gods and their aspects. In recent decades the study of
Hinduism has also been taken up by a number of academic institutions in
Europe, such as the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and Bhaktivedanta
College.[32] See also: Krishnology
Topics[edit]
Further information: Outline of theology
As an academic discipline[edit]
The history of the study of theology in institutions of higher education is as
old as the history of such institutions themselves. For instance, Taxila was
an early centre of Vedic learning, possible from the 6th century BC or
earlier;[33] the Platonic Academy founded in Athens in the 4th century BC
seems to have included theological themes in its subject matter;[34] the
Chinese Taixue delivered Confucian teaching from the 2nd century BC;[35]
the School of Nisibis was a centre of Christian learning from the 4th century
AD;[36][37] Nalanda in India was a site of Buddhist higher learning from at least
the 5th or 6th century AD;[38] and the Moroccan University of Al-Karaouine
was a centre of Islamic learning from the 10th century,[39] as was Al-Azhar
University in Cairo.[40]
The earliest universities were developed under the aegis of the Latin
Church by papal bull as studia generalia and perhaps from cathedral
schools. It is possible, however, that the development of cathedral schools
into universities was quite rare, with the University of Paris being an
exception.[41] Later they were also founded by Kings (University of Naples
Federico II, Charles University in Prague, Jagiellonian University in Kraków)
or municipal administrations (University of Cologne, University of Erfurt). In
the early medieval period, most new universities were founded from pre-
existing schools, usually when these schools were deemed to have become
primarily sites of higher education. Many historians state that universities
and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning
promoted by monasteries.[42] Christian theological learning was therefore a
component in these institutions, as was the study of Church or Canon law:
universities played an important role in training people for ecclesiastical
offices, in helping the church pursue the clarification and defence of its
teaching, and in supporting the legal rights of the church over against
secular rulers.[43] At such universities, theological study was initially closely
tied to the life of faith and of the church: it fed, and was fed by, practices of
preaching, prayer and celebration of the Mass.[44]
During the High Middle Ages, theology was therefore the ultimate subject at
universities, being named "The Queen of the Sciences" and serving as the
capstone to the Trivium and Quadrivium that young men were expected to
study. This meant that the other subjects (including Philosophy) existed
primarily to help with theological thought.[45]
Christian theology's preeminent place in the university began to be
challenged during the European Enlightenment, especially in Germany.[46]
Other subjects gained in independence and prestige, and questions were
raised about the place of a discipline that seemed to involve commitment to
the authority of particular religious traditions in institutions that were
increasingly understood to be devoted to independent reason.[47]
Since the early nineteenth century, various different approaches have
emerged in the West to theology as an academic discipline. Much of the
debate concerning theology's place in the university or within a general
higher education curriculum centres on whether theology's methods are
appropriately theoretical and (broadly speaking) scientific or, on the other
hand, whether theology requires a pre-commitment of faith by its
practitioners, and whether such a commitment conflicts with academic
freedom.[48]
Ministerial training[edit]
In some contexts, theology has been held to belong in institutions of higher
education primarily as a form of professional training for Christian ministry.
This was the basis on which Friedrich Schleiermacher, a liberal theologian,
argued for the inclusion of theology in the new University of Berlin in
1810.[49]
For instance, in Germany, theological faculties at state universities are
typically tied to particular denominations, Protestant or Roman Catholic,
and those faculties will offer denominationally-bound
(konfessionsgebunden) degrees, and have denominationally bound public
posts amongst their faculty; as well as contributing 'to the development and
growth of Christian knowledge' they 'provide the academic training for the
future clergy and teachers of religious instruction at German schools.'[50]
In the United States, several prominent colleges and universities were
started in order to train Christian ministers. Harvard,[51] Georgetown,[52]
Boston University, Yale,[53] and Princeton[54] all had the theological training of
clergy as a primary purpose at their foundation.
Seminaries and bible colleges have continued this alliance between the
academic study of theology and training for Christian ministry. There are,
for instance, numerous prominent US examples, including Catholic
Theological Union in Chicago,[55] The Graduate Theological Union in
Berkeley,[56] Criswell College in Dallas,[57] The Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Louisville,[58] Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield,
Illinois,[59] Dallas Theological Seminary,[60] North Texas Collegiate Institute in
Farmers Branch, Texas[61] and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary
in Springfield, Missouri.
As an academic discipline in its own right[edit]
In some contexts, scholars pursue theology as an academic discipline
without formal affiliation to any particular church (though members of staff
may well have affiliations to churches), and without focussing on ministerial
training. This applies, for instance, to many university departments in the
United Kingdom, including the Faculties of Divinity at the University of
Cambridge and University of Oxford, the Department of Theology and
Religion at the University of Exeter, and the Department of Theology and
Religious Studies at the University of Leeds.[62] Traditional academic prizes,
such as the University of Aberdeen's Lumsden and Sachs Fellowship, tend
to acknowledge performance in theology (or divinity as it is known at
Aberdeen) and in religious studies.
Religious studies[edit]
In some contemporary contexts, a distinction is made between theology,
which is seen as involving some level of commitment to the claims of the
religious tradition being studied, and religious studies, which by contrast is
normally seen as requiring that the question of the truth or falsehood of the
religious traditions studied be kept outside its field. Religious studies
involves the study of historical or contemporary practices or of those
traditions' ideas using intellectual tools and frameworks that are not
themselves specifically tied to any religious tradition and that are normally
understood to be neutral or secular.[63] In contexts where 'religious studies'
in this sense is the focus, the primary forms of study are likely to include:
• Anthropology of religion
• Comparative religion
• History of religions
• Philosophy of religion
• Psychology of religion
• Sociology of religion
Sometimes, theology and religious studies are seen as being in tension,[64]
and at other times, they are held to coexist without serious tension.[65]
Occasionally it is denied that there is as clear a boundary between them.[66]
Criticism[edit]
See also: Criticism of religion
There is an ancient tradition of skepticism about theology, followed by a
more modern rise in secularist and atheist criticism.
Criticism by philosophers[edit]
Whether or not reasoned discussion about the divine is possible has long
been a point of contention. Protagoras, as early as the fifth century BC, who
is reputed to have been exiled from Athens because of his agnosticism
about the existence of the gods, said that "Concerning the gods I cannot
know either that they exist or that they do not exist, or what form they might
have, for there is much to prevent one's knowing: the obscurity of the
subject and the shortness of man's life."[67]
Lord Bolingbroke, an English politician and political philosopher wrote in his
political works his views on theology, "Theology is in fault not religion.
Theology is a science that may justly be compared to the Box of Pandora.
Many good things lie uppermost in it; but many evil lie under them, and
scatter plagues and desolation throughout the world."[68]
Thomas Paine the American revolutionary, wrote in his two part work The
Age of Reason, "The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches,
is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it
proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and
it admits of no conclusion. Not anything can be studied as a science,
without our being in possession of the principles upon which it is founded;
and as this is the case with Christian theology, it is therefore the study of
nothing."[69]
Ludwig Feuerbach, the atheist philosopher sought to dissolve theology in
his work Principles of the Philosophy of the Future: "The task of the modern
era was the realization and humanization of God – the transformation and
dissolution of theology into anthropology."[70] This mirrored his earlier work
The Essence of Christianity (pub. 1841), for which he was banned from
teaching in Germany, in which he had said that theology was a "web of
contradictions and delusions".[71]
A.J. Ayer the former logical-positivist, sought to show in his essay "Critique
of Ethics and Theology" that all statements about the divine are nonsensical
and any divine-attribute is unprovable. He wrote: "It is now generally
admitted, at any rate by philosophers, that the existence of a being having
the attributes which define the god of any non-animistic religion cannot be
demonstratively proved... [A]ll utterances about the nature of God are
nonsensical."[72]
Walter Kaufmann the philosopher, in his essay "Against Theology", sought
to differentiate theology from religion in general. "Theology, of course, is not
religion; and a great deal of religion is emphatically anti-theological... An
attack on theology, therefore, should not be taken as necessarily involving
an attack on religion. Religion can be, and often has been, untheological or
even anti-theological." However, Kaufmann found that "Christianity is
inescapably a theological religion".[73]
Critics of theology as an academic discipline[edit]
Critics dating back to the 18th century have questioned the suitability of
theology as an academic discipline and in the 21st century criticism
continues.[74]
General criticism[edit]
Charles Bradlaugh believed theology prevented human beings achieving
liberty.[75] Bradlaugh noted theologians of his time stated that modern
scientific research contradicted sacred scriptures therefore the scriptures
must be wrong.[76]
Robert G. Ingersoll stated that when theologians had power the majority of
people lived in hovels while a privileged few had palaces and cathedrals. In
Ingersoll's opinion science rather than theology improved people's lives.
Ingersoll maintained further that trained theologians reason no better than a
person who assumes the devil must exist because pictures resemble the
devil so exactly.[77]
Mark Twain stated that several mutually incompatible religions claimed to
be the true religion and that people cut the throats of others for following a
different theology.[78]
In 1993, Richard Dawkins wrote, "The achievements of theologians don't do
anything, don't affect anything, don't achieve anything, don't even mean
anything. What makes you think that 'theology' is a subject at all?"[79]
References[edit]
1 Jump up 
^ "theology". Wordnetweb.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
2 Jump up 
^ The accusative plural of the neuter noun λόγιον; cf. Walter Bauer,
William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich, Frederick W. Danker, A Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament, 2nd ed., (Chicago and London: University of
Chicago Press, 1979), 476. For examples of λόγια in the New Testament, cf.
Acts 7:38; Romans 3:2; 1 Peter 4:11.
3 Jump up 
^ Langland, Piers Plowman A ix 136
4 ^ Jump up to: a
 b City of God Book VIII. i. "de divinitate rationem sive sermonem"
Archived 4 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine.
5 Jump up 
^ "''Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity'', 3.8.11" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-
11-11.
6 Jump up 
^ McGrath, Alister. 1998. Historical Theology: An Introduction to the
History of Christian Thought. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. pp. 1–8.
7 Jump up 
^ See, e.g., Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An
Introduction to Christian Theology 2nd ed.(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004)
8 Jump up 
^ See, e.g., Michael S. Kogan, 'Toward a Jewish Theology of
Christianity' in The Journal of Ecumenical Studies 32.1 (Winter 1995), 89–106;
available online at [1] Archived 15 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
9 Jump up 
^ See, e.g., Duncan Dormor et al (eds), Anglicanism, the Answer to
Modernity (London: Continuum, 2003)
10 Jump up 
^ See, e.g., John Shelby Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or
Die (New York: Harper Collins, 2001)
11 Jump up 
^ See, e.g., David Burrell, Freedom and Creation in Three
Traditions (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994)
12 Jump up 
^ See, e.g., Timothy Gorringe, Crime, Changing Society and the
Churches Series (London:SPCK, 2004)
13 Jump up 
^ See e.g., Anne Hunt Overzee's gloss upon the view of Ricœur
(1913–2005) as to the role and work of 'theologian': "Paul Ricœur speaks of
the theologian as a hermeneut, whose task is to interpret the multivalent, rich
metaphors arising from the symbolic bases of tradition so that the symbols
may 'speak' once again to our existential situation." Anne Hunt Overzee The
body divine: the symbol of the body in the works of Teilhard de Chardin and
Rāmānuja, Cambridge studies in religious traditions 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), ISBN 0-521-38516-4, ISBN 978-0-521-38516-9, p.4;
Source: [2] (accessed: Monday 5 April 2010)
14 Jump up 
^ Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon''.
15 Jump up 
^ Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book Epsilon. Archived 16 February 2008
at the Wayback Machine.
16 Jump up 
^ As cited by Augustine, City of God, Book 6, ch.5.
17 Jump up 
^ This title appears quite late in the manuscript tradition for the Book
of Revelation: the two earliest citations provided in David Aune's Word Biblical
Commentary 52: Revelation 1–5 (Dallas: Word Books, 1997) are both 11th
century – Gregory 325/Hoskier 9 and Gregory 1006/Hoskier 215; the title was
however in circulation by the 6th century – see Allen Brent ‘John as theologos:
the imperial mysteries and the Apocalypse’, Journal for the Study of the New
Testament 75 (1999), 87–102.
18 Jump up 
^ See Augustine, City of God, Book 6, ch.5. and Tertullian, Ad
Nationes, Book 2, ch.1.
19 Jump up 
^ Gregory of Nazianzus uses the word in this sense in his fourth-
century Theological Orations; after his death, he was called "the Theologian"
at the Council of Chalcedon and thereafter in Eastern Orthodoxy—either
because his Orationswere seen as crucial examples of this kind of theology, or
in the sense that he was (like the author of the Book of Revelation) seen as
one who was an inspired preacher of the words of God. (It is unlikely to mean,
as claimed in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers introduction to his
Theological Orations, that he was a defender of the divinity of Christ the
Word.) See John McGukin, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual
Biography (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2001), p.278.
20 Jump up 
^ "Boethius, On the Holy Trinity" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-11-11.
21 Jump up 
^ G.R. Evans, Old Arts and New Theology: The Beginnings of
Theology as an Academic Discipline (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980), 31–32.
22 Jump up 
^ See the title of Peter Abelard's Theologia Christiana, and, perhaps
most famously, of Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica
23 Jump up 
^ See the 'note' in the Oxford English Dictionary entry for 'theology'.
24 Jump up 
^ See, for example, Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 1,
 part 1 (1871).
25 Jump up 
^ Oxford English Dictionary, sense 1
26 Jump up 
^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1989 edition, 'Theology' sense 1(d),
and 'Theological' sense A.3; the earliest reference given is from the 1959
Times Literary Supplement 5 June 329/4: "The 'theological' approach to Soviet
Marxism ... proves in the long run unsatisfactory."
27 Jump up 
^ E.g., by Count E. Goblet d'Alviella in 1908; see Alan H. Jones,
Independence and Exegesis: The Study of Early Christianity in the Work of
Alfred Loisy (1857–1940), Charles Guignebert (1857 [i.e. 1867]–1939), and
Maurice Goguel (1880–1955) (Mohr Siebeck, 1983), p.194.
28 Jump up 
^ Randi Rashkover, 'A Call for Jewish Theology', Crosscurrents,
Winter 1999, starts by saying, "Frequently the claim is made that, unlike
Christianity, Judaism is a tradition of deeds and maintains no strict theological
tradition. Judaism's fundamental beliefs are inextricable from their halakhic
observance (that set of laws revealed to Jews by God), embedded and
presupposed by that way of life as it is lived and learned."
29 Jump up 
^ Lerman, Eran (October 1981). "Maududi's Concept of Islam".
Middle Eastern Studies. JSTOR. 17 (4): 492–509.
doi:10.1080/00263208108700487. JSTOR 4282856. “it is hard to exaggerate
the importance of its [Pakistan's] current drift toward's Maududi's version of
Islam”
30 Jump up 
^ L. Gardet, 'Ilm al-kalam' in The Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. P.J.
Bearman et al (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1999).
31 Jump up 
^ Jose Ignacio Cabezon, 'Buddhist Theology in the Academy' in
Roger Jackson and John J. Makransky's Buddhist Theology: Critical
Reflections by Contemporary Buddhist Scholars (London: Routledge, 1999),
pp. 25–52.
32 Jump up 
^ See Anna S. King, 'For Love of Krishna: Forty Years of Chanting'
in Graham Dwyer and Richard J. Cole, The Hare Krishna Movement: Forty
Years of Chant and Change (London/New York: I.B. Tauris, 2006), pp. 134–
167: p. 163, which describes developments in both institutions, and speaks of
Hare Krishna devotees 'studying Vaishnava theology and practice in
mainstream universities.'
33 Jump up 
^ Timothy Reagan, Non-Western Educational Traditions: Alternative
Approaches to Educational Thought and Practice, 3rd edition (Lawrence
Erlbaum: 2004), p.185 and Sunna Chitnis, 'Higher Education' in Veena Das
(ed), The Oxford India Companion to Sociology and Social Anthropology (New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 1032–1056: p.1036 suggest an
early date; a more cautious appraisal is given in Hartmut Scharfe, Education in
Ancient India (Leiden: Brill, 2002), pp. 140–142.
34 Jump up 
^ John Dillon, The Heirs of Plato: A Study in the Old Academy, 347–
274BC (Oxford: OUP, 2003)
35 Jump up 
^ Xinzhong Yao, An Introduction to Confucianism (Cambridge: CUP,
 2000), p.50.
36 Jump up 
^ Becker, Adam H. (2006). The Fear of God and the Beginning of
Wisdom: The School of Nisibis and the Development of Scholastic Culture in
Late Antique Mesopotamia. University of Pennsylvania Press.
37 Jump up 
^ "The School of Nisibis". Nestorian.org. Archived from the original
on 3 March 2016.
38 Jump up 
^ Hartmut Scharfe, Education in Ancient India (Leiden: Brill, 2002),
p.149.
39 Jump up 
^ The Al-Qarawiyyin mosque was founded in 859 AD, but 'While
instruction at the mosque must have begun almost from the beginning, it is
only ... by the end of the tenth-century that its reputation as a center of
learning in both religious and secular sciences ... must have begun to wax.' Y.
G-M. Lulat, A History of African Higher Education from Antiquity to the
Present: A Critical Synthesis (Greenwood, 2005), p.71
40 Jump up 
^ Andrew Beattie, Cairo: A Cultural History (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2005), p.101.
41 Jump up 
^ Gordon Leff, Paris and Oxford Universities in the Thirteenth and
Fourteenth Centuries. An Institutional and Intellectual History, Wiley, 1968.
42 Jump up 
^ Johnson, P. (2000). The Renaissance : a short history. Modern
Library chronicles (Modern Library ed.). New York: Modern Library, p. 9.
43 Jump up 
^ Walter Rüegg, “Themes” in Walter Rüegg, A History of the
University in Europe, vol.1, ed. H. de Ridder-Symoens, Universities in the
Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 3–34: pp.
15–16.
44 Jump up 
^ See Gavin D'Costa, Theology in the Public Square: Church,
Academy and Nation (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), ch.1.
45 Jump up 
^ Thomas Albert Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of
the Modern German University (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), p.56:
'[P]hilosophy, the scientia scientarum in one sense, was, in another, portrayed
as the humble "handmaid of theology".'
46 Jump up 
^ See Thomas Albert Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making
of the Modern German University (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006):
47 Jump up 
^ See Thomas Albert Howard's work already cited, and his
discussion of, for instance, Immanuel Kant's Conflict of the Faculties (1798),
and J.G. Fichte's Deduzierter Plan einer zu Berlin errichtenden höheren
Lehranstalt (1807).
48 Jump up 
^ See Thomas Albert Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making
of the Modern German University (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006);
Hans W. Frei, Types of Christian Theology, ed. William C. Placher and
George Hunsinger (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992); Gavin
D'Costa, Theology in the Public Square: Church, Academy and Nation
(Oxford: Blackwell, 2005); James W. McClendon, Systematic Theology 3:
Witness (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2000), ch.10: 'Theology and the University'.
49 Jump up 
^ Friedrich Schleiermacher, Brief Outline of Theology as a Field of
Study, 2nd edition, tr. Terrence N. Tice (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1990);
Thomas Albert Howard, Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern
German University (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), ch.14.
50 Jump up 
^ Reinhard G. Kratz, 'Academic Theology in Germany', Religion
32.2 (2002): pp.113–116.
51 Jump up 
^ 'The primary purpose of Harvard College was, accordingly, the
training of clergy.' But 'the school served a dual purpose, training men for
other professions as well.' George M. Marsden, The Soul of the American
University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p.41.
52 Jump up 
^ Georgetown was a Jesuit institution founded in significant part to
provide a pool of educated Catholics some of whom who could go on to full
seminary training for the priesthood. See Robert Emmett Curran, Leo J.
O'Donovan, The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From
Academy to University 1789–1889 (Georgetown: Georgetown University
Press, 1961), Part One.
53 Jump up 
^ Yale's original 1701 charter speaks of the purpose being 'Sincere
Regard & Zeal for upholding & Propagating of the Christian Protestant
Religion by a succession of Learned & Orthodox' and that 'Youth may be
instructed in the Arts and Sciences (and) through the blessing of Almighty God
may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State.' 'The
Charter of the Collegiate School, October 1701' in Franklin Bowditch Dexter,
Documentary History of Yale University, Under the Original Charter of the
Collegiate School of Connecticut 1701–1745 (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press, 1916); available online at [1]
54 Jump up 
^ At Princeton, one of the founders (probably Ebeneezer
Pemberton) wrote in c.1750, 'Though our great Intention was to erect a
seminary for educating Ministers of the Gospel, yet we hope it will be useful in
other learned professions – Ornaments of the State as Well as the Church.
Therefore we propose to make the plan of Education as extensive as our
Circumstances will admit.' Quoted in Alexander Leitch, A Princeton
Companion (Princeton University Press, 1978).
55 Jump up 
^ "The CTU Story". Catholic Theological Union. Archived from the
original on March 7, 2013. Retrieved March 16, 2013. “lay men and women,
religious sisters and brothers, and seminarians have studied alongside one
another, preparing to serve God's people”
56 Jump up 
^ See 'About the GTU' at The Graduate Theological Union website
(Retrieved 29 August 2009): 'dedicated to educating students for teaching,
research, ministry, and service.'
57 Jump up 
^ "The Criswell Vision". Criswell College. Archived from the original
on April 26, 2010. Retrieved August 29, 2009. “Criswell College exists to serve
the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ by developing God-called men and
 women in the Word (intellectually and academically) and by the Word
(professionally and spiritually) for authentic ministry leadership”
58 Jump up 
^ "Mission Statement". Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Archived from the original on March 29, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2009. “the
mission of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is ... to be a servant of
the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention by training, educating, and
preparing ministers of the gospel for more faithful service”
59 Jump up 
^ "About Trinity Evangelical Divinity School". Trinity Evangelical
Divinity School. Archived from the original on August 30, 2011. Retrieved
August 29, 2009. “Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) is a learning
community dedicated to the development of servant leaders for the global
church, leaders who are spiritually, biblically, and theologically prepared to
engage contemporary culture for the sake of Christ's kingdom”
60 Jump up 
^ See 'About DTS' at the Dallas Theological Seminary website
(Retrieved 29 August 2009): 'At Dallas, the scholarly study of biblical and
related subjects is inseparably fused with the cultivation of the spiritual life. All
this is designed to prepare students to communicate the Word of God in the
power of the Spirit of God.'
61 Jump up 
^ ".::North Texas Collegiate Institute ::". .::North Texas Collegiate
Institute ::.
62 Jump up 
^ See the 'Why Study Theology?' Archived 9 August 2009 at the
Wayback Machine. page at the University of Exeter (Retrieved 1 September
2009), and the 'About us' page at the University of Leeds. "Archived copy".
Archived from the original on 9 August 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-01.
63 Jump up 
^ See, for example, Donald Wiebe, The Politics of Religious
Studies: The Continuing Conflict with Theology in the Academy (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2000).
64 Jump up 
^ See K.L. Knoll, 'The Ethics of Being a Theologian', Chronicle of
Higher Education, 27 July 2009.
65 Jump up 
^ See David Ford, 'Theology and Religious Studies for a Multifaith
and Secular Society' in D.L. Bird and Simon G. Smith (eds), Theology and
Religious Studies in Higher Education (London: Continuum, 2009).
66 Jump up 
^ Timothy Fitzgerald, The Ideology of Religious Studies (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2000).
67 Jump up 
^ Protagoras, fr.4, from On the Gods, tr. Michael J. O'Brien in The
Older Sophists, ed. Rosamund Kent Sprague (Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press, 1972), 20, emphasis added. Cf. Carol Poster, "Protagoras (fl.
5th C. BCE)" in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; accessed: 6 October
2008.
68 Jump up 
^ The philosophical works of Lord Bolingbroke Volume 3, p. 396
69 Jump up 
^ Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason, from "The Life and Major
Writings of Thomas Paine", ed. Philip S. Foner, (New York, The Citadel Press,
1945) p. 601.
70 Jump up 
^ Ludwig Feuerbach, Principles of the Philosophy of the Future,
trans. Manfred H. Vogel, (Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, 1986) p5
71 Jump up 
^ Ludwig Feuerbach, The Essence of Christianity, trans. George
Eliot, (Amherst, New York, Prometheus Books, 1989) Preface, XVI.
72 Jump up 
^ A.J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic, (New York, Dover
Publications, 1936) pp. 114–115.
73 Jump up 
^ Walter Kaufmann, The Faith of a Heretic, (Garden City, New York,
Anchor Books, 1963) pp. 114, 127–128, 130.
74 Jump up 
^ Gerard Loughlin. "Theology in the university". Cco.cambridge.org.
Retrieved 2012-11-11.
75 Jump up 
^ "Charles Bradlaugh (1833-1891)". Positiveatheism.org. Archived
from the original on 1 May 2013. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
76 Jump up 
^ "Humanity's Gain from Unbelief". Positiveatheism.org. Archived
from the original on 17 July 2012. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
77 Jump up 
^ "Robert Green Ingersoll". Positiveatheism.org. 11 August 1954.
Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 11 November 2012.
78 Jump up 
^ "Directory of Mark Twain's maxims, quotations, and various
opinions". Twainquotes.com. 1902-11-28. Retrieved 2012-11-11.
79 Jump up 
^ "Letter: Scientific versus theological knowledge". 20 March 1993.
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• "Theology" on Encyclopædia Britannica
• Chattopadhyay, Subhasis. "Reflections on Hindu Theology" in Prabuddha
Bharata or Awakened India 120(12):664-672 (2014). ISSN 0032-
6178. Edited by Swami Narasimhananda.