SECTION I

The history of the word

theology"
II
 2

You may be puzzled that I treat the history of the word

"theology" as a separate matter from the history of the
reality that we today refer to as "theology". However, it is
important to remember that words do have histories of
their own. The fact that they are used today to designate a
particular reality certainly means that there is some
connection between the original meaning of the word and
the reality it is now used to designate. However, the
present use of the word could also be the result of drastic
changes in its meaning, so that in past centuries it could
have been quite inappropriate to have used that word to
indicate the reality signified by it today.
Theology is one such word.
 3 STH403-T/1

CHAPTER 1

The Eastern Church

1.1 INTRODUCTION 1
We begin with the Eastern Church, for it was there that the
earliest developments took place. Indeed, as we will see,
"theology" has Greek roots.
In this chapter we will examine its pagan origins (1.2, 1.3,
1.4 & 1.5) and then look at the earliest Christian reaction to
the term (1.6). After that we will see how it entered into
Christian usage at Alexandria (1.7 & 1.8) and became
widespread in the East by the mid-fourth century (1.9). Some
terminological distinctions will conclude the chapter (1.10 &
1.11).

1.2 PLATO (427-347 BC)

The word "theology" comes from a Greek word: theologia
(ew).oyux) and is pre-Christian in origin. The first recorded
case we have of its use is in Plato's Republic, where
Adeimantes asks Socrates what the correct pattern of speech
is that should be used in "theology" (theologias, i.e., literally
sayings about God or the gods).Z However, the meaning of the
word as used by Plato is not the one we are familiar with.
Instead it refers to the myths, the stories the Greeks narrated
about their gods. "Theology" means literally "talk about God
or gods", and so Plato used this word to describe the
mythical stories told by the Greeks about their gods. He
himself was very critical of those myths, even though he
recognized in them an educational value. The word
"theology" would therefore have signified for him quite a
different reality from that which we designate by it. Yet, as
you can see, there is still some connection between the two
(in the idea of "talk about God").
(3)
 4

1.3 ARISTOTLE
For Plato's pupil Aristotle, too, theologia usually means
mythology, not what we mean by it. He also uses the word
"theologian" of the great poets Hesiod and Homer, who
narrated the Greek myths.
However, I said that it "usually" means that for Aristotle,
for there is also another and very important meaning that he
gave the term in his Metaphysics. In Book E (i.e. Book VI) of
the Metaphysics we read that there are "three speculative
philosophies: mathematics, physics and theology -since it
is obvious that if the divine is present anywhere it is present
in this kind of entity; and also the most honourable science
must deal with the most honourable class of subject". 3
Aristotle here uses the term theologia for what he sees as the
highest level of philosophy: metaphysics. For Aristotle,
metaphysics was the obvious place in philosophy where the
divine would be dealt with. He therefore called it "theology". .
What is interesting and important about this is that we see
here a shift away from the word's exclusive use as a term for
myths and their narrators.

1.4 THE STOICS

This shift became an established part of the Stoic use of the
term. Cleanthes (3rd century BC) divided philosophy into
dialectics and rhetoric, ethics and politics, physics and
"theology", meaning by the last-mentioned a reasoned, i.e., a
philosophical account of divinity. 4
By the second century BC we come across what was to
become a wellknown division of "theology", i.e., the treat-
ment of the divine, into three parts or types. The first was
mythical theology. This corresponded to the original mean-
ing of the term. Next, there was physical theology. This
corresponded to the shift we find initiated by Aristotle- i.e.,
a philosophical inve~tigation of the divine. The reason for the
name seems to be5 that much philosophical speculation
about the gods saw them as personifications of physical
forces, of certain aspects of nature. This is no doubt why
Augustine prefers to term Varro's "physical" theology,
"natural" theology6 (Varro lived from 116 to 27 BC and was
one who, in a lost work called Antiquitates, used the triple
 s STH403-T/1

division of theology. we are considering here). The term

"natural theology", incidentally, was to become an accepted
part of the Christian vocabulary. However, the use of the
word "natural" then came to refer to something quite
different- i.e., to the fact that such a theology proceeded
exclusively from a consideration and use of what was natural
to us (our reason arid the world ("nature") around us). This
was distinguished from a theology based on revelation- i.e.,
on what was believed to have been given to us over and above
the natural.
One final point to be noted before we go on to the third type
of theology is that the second, philosophical meaning of the
term did not become the more normal one until well into the
Christian era- i.e., with the advent of Neo-Platonism.
The third and final type of theology was political theology.
By this was meant the views on the gods propounded and
ritually structured by the political powers. In short it
referred to the understanding of the gods inherent in public
cult and the value of such cult.

1.5 HOMOLOGICAL USE OF THE TERM IN THE IMPERIAL ERA

This public cult played a major role in the life of the Roman
Empire (Christians were called "atheists" precisely because
they did not worship the Roman gods and were persecuted
because they rejected them as false, a rejection that many
saw as a threat to the Empire itself). The emperor was also
the High Priest (pontifex maximus). Indeed, emperors came
to be honoured as gods, and we see here yet a further use of
the term "theology". For in its verbal form ("theologize") it
came to mean to confess someone to be a god, to praise or
honour someone as a god.

1.6 THE EARLY CHRISTIANS

With such a background it is understandable that the first
generation of Christians avoided the term "theology" as a
description of what they had to say about God. Indeed, the
term is not found at all in the New Testament and the
Apostolic Fathers. As regards the Apologists (early Christian
writers who gave a reasoned defence of the faith -they lived
from approximately 120 to 220 AD), "theology" is found a few
 6

times, but it usually refers either to mythology or to the

praise of someone as a god. On a few rare occasions it has the
philosophical meaning mentioned earlier on. Indeed, the
Apologists preferred to refer to their expositions of the faith
as "philosophy", the "true" philosophy.
However, it was probably inevitable that Christianity
would eventually take over the word "theology" to describe
its own beliefs. First of all, there was the fact that the custom
had already developed of calling that part of philosophy that
dealt with the divine, "theology". As the "true" philosophy,
Christianity would therefore have seen itself as the true
"theology". Furthermore, in its literal meaning "theology"
was a more suitable term than philosophy, for describing the
Christian corpus of assertions about God.

1.7 CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

The change came about in Alexandria. That it occurred there
is not surprising. A school of Christian learning had been in ·
existence there since the late second century, its purpose
being to present Christianity in a form that would appeal to
the more cultured classes. These were people well-educated
in classical learning, the heart of which was Greek
philosophy. Its first known teacher was Pantaenus (died c.
190). He was succeeded by Clement (c. 150--220).
Clement was born and educated a pagan. Steeped in the
literature and wisdom of paganism, his background made
him, after his conversion, the obvious man to take over the
school. His respect for the old Greek wisdom was very great
indeed - and like the early philosophical demythologisers
thereof, he too saw wisdom embedded in the old myths.
Clement loved allegory and was able to see all sorts of depths
of meaning behind tales that to us would appear simply as
interesting stories. However, his respect for ancient wisdom
did not lead him to see it as something independent of his
own Christian tradition. Instead, he saw that wisdom as a
gift from the God who revealed himself fully only in Jesus
Christ. It was a gift that, he believed, resulted from the work
of that Word who eventually became man in Jesus Christ.
That Word was at work in the Old Testament period amongst
the Jews, and Clement (like other Christian apologists)
 7 STH403-T/1

believed that the Greeks got their wisdom from the Hebrew
prophets. He writes that Orpheus, Linus, Musaeus, Homer
and Hesiod all learnt their "theology" from the Prophets,?
and by "theology" he means here "knowledge of divine
realities". 8
For Clement, then, all that was good in the learning of the
ancients came from that Logos (Word) that became flesh in
Jesus Christ. Such learning could therefore be described as
theology, as the "true theology". 9 "Theology" is still being
used, however, in its philosophical sense- i.e., in the sense
of that part of philosophy dealing with the divine. However, a
link has now been made with Christianity, because the
content of that "theology" is now said to derive from the
same logos whom Christians revered in the form in which he
gave the fullness of his wisdom: Jesus Christ. Clement also
refers to the old mythopoets (e.g. Homer and Hesiod) as the
"old theologians", and their writings as "theology". How-
ever, even this original sense of the word "theology" is
stripped by Clement of its undesirable elements because, as
we saw, Clement regarded their myths as the setting down, in
allegorical form, of a wisdom they had gained from the logos'
activity.
In Clement, therefore, the word is still used in its old
connotations, but those connotations are now linked to
Christianity. The "theology" of the old philosophers and the
"theology" of Greek mythology are seen as deriving ulti-
mately from the logos' activity and are therefore part of that
gift of God to mankind that arrived- in all its fullness only in
Jesus Christ (Clement stressed repeatedly that, good as much
ancient learning was, it was only a shadow of what is found
in Christianity). "Theology" therefore began to take on a
respectable meaning.
1.8 ORIGEN
This process of associating the term with good and true
knowledge of God is continued by Clement's successor;
Origen (c. 185-254). Like Clement, he speaks approvingly of.
the ancient Greek "theologians"- i.e., those who dealt in
their writings with religious matters. However, he goes
further than Clement by actually applying the term to

'""'""
 8

Christian beliefs about and attitudes to God. "He proposes

theology as a veritable doctrine about God, but more
significantly he states it is a doctrine about Christ, the
Saviour, Whom it presents truly as God ... As for the term
ewA.oyELu = to theologise), when speaking of God or of
Christ, it is quite positively employed to mean: to recognize,
proclaim and confess as God, somewhat in the sense in which
the pagans spoke of the divinization of Caesar" .10
1.9 EUSEBIUS OF CAESAREA
By the time of Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 264-349), the baptism
of the term "theology" is complete, so much so that in
Eusebius' writings we see a total reversal of roles for it: it is
now used frequently and exclusively for Christian beliefs
about God. This exclusive use of the term shows that other
factors were at work apart from the aforementioned process
of making pagan philosophy and mythology and therefore the
word "theology" acceptable to Christian writers.
The main other factor was, it seems, the triumph of
Christian thought and religion in its battle with paganism, a
triumph that reached its high-point in the advent of the first
Christian emperor, Constantine.
Ebeling 11 writes that part of the expression of this victory
was what he calls the "annexation" of the word "theology"
and its related forms. For Eusebius, therefore, "theology" is
that body of knowledge that refers to the true God and to
Christ (viewed from the side of his divinity). To "theologise"
is to confess the Creator and his Logos as God, rather than the
idols of paganism. And "theologian" is a term used no longer
for the pagans but for the Old Testament prophets, for Paul
and above all (because his Gospel is so clearly God-centred)
John. As Battifol notes, "for Eusebius the term "theology"
refers so exclusively to the knowledge of the true God and of
Christ that henceforth it would no longer be possible (i.e. for
Eastern writers) to apply the word to false gods without at
the same time calling it a false theology" 12
1.10 "THEOLOGY" AND "ECONOMY"
As you can see, the focus of attention in the use of the word
"theology" was God (and Christ, viewed from his divine
aspect). During the rest of the fourth and fifth centuries,
 9 STH403-T/l

therefore, "theology" did not refer to all Christian beliefs. A

distinction was made between those beliefs concerning what
God was like (what we would today call "the doctrine of
God") and what God had done for our salvation (what we
would today call "soteriology"). The former was called
"theology", while the latter was named "economy"
(oikonomia). Incidentally, the incarnate Word- i.e., the
Word in his humanity- fell under "economy" (for obvious
reasons). Amongst the writers of this period there were
variations in their use of the word "theology" (within the
broad sense of "teaching about God"), but these need not
concern us here. Finally, we can also simply note that by the
end of the fifth century, not only the evangelists but also post
apostolic Christian writers (e.g. Basil) were being referred to
as "theologians".
1.11 FURTHER DISTINCTIONS WITHIN THE TERM
In the writings of Denys, the Pseudo-Areopagite (c. 500; see
5.4.2 below), we find distinctions being made between
various types of "theology": between "mystical" theology
and the more ratiocinatory, philosophical type of theology,
and between a negative and an affirmative theology. These
distinctions reflected Denys' mystical bent. "Mystical"
theology was the knowledge one obtains of God through
mystical union with him. As such it was superior to the more
mundane ratiocinatory theology. A "negative" theology was a
way of conveying the transcendence of God by stressing the
need to negate (hence: "negative") that he is like anything we
know. Its western philosophical origins can be traced to
Plato's emphasis on the transcendent character of the origin
of all things. The middle-Platonist Jewish philosopher, Philo
(c. 20 BC to 50 AD), drew the explicit conclusion from this that
we can only know what God is not- not what he is. Denys
takes up this idea, 13 which had become widespread thanks to
nee-Platonist influence, and makes it central to his theology.
Because of Denys' influence, the saying that we can only
know what God is not, not what he is, was to become famous
and form a permanent part of Christian theology. It
undergirds, e.g., Aquinas' whole approach to theology. 14
However, theology is not merely a series of negations. There
 10

are affirmations that must be made - hence Denys'

"affirmative" theology.
Denys' mysticism was part. of a large and influential
mystical movement. For all these mystics "theology" meant,
above all, the knowledge of God derived from mystical union
with him. 15 It is interesting to see how even on this rarified
level (a level very much under the influence of neo-Platonism,
as we will see), you have that unity between praxis (in the
form of the contemplative life that leads to such mystical
union) and theory (= knowledge of God) that is being stressed
so much today in liberation theology.
1.12 SUMMARY
Please do not read the summary thatfoUows before you have
tried to make your own one. Make your draft summary from
memory. Then check the text again to see if you have left
anything important out. Then complete your summary. Only
THEN go ahead and read the summary that foUows. Please
note that there is no one perfect way of making a summary,
so do not expect yours to coincide with mine. In fact, I have
deliberately made the foUowing summary slightly fuUer than
need be, so as to assist you in recalling the main items after
attempting your own summary.
"Theology" comes from the Greek "theologia", which
means, literally, "talk about God/gods". The first use of it, as
far as we know, is in Plato's Republic. There it refers to the
myths the Greeks told about their gods.
The word retains this basic meaning in Aristotle's
writings, but he also uses it to refer to that branch of
philosophy that he called metaphysics, since it included in
its ambit the sphere of the divine. This further meaning
became an established part of the Stoic use of the term. It is
from the Stoics that the well known division of "theology"
derives: mythical theology (the original meaning of the term),
physical (or "natural") theology (Aristotle's further
philosophical meaning) and political theology (the views on
the gods propounded and ritually structured by the political
powers). With the advent of the empire, "theology" also
developed a homological meaning: confessing someone to be
a god.
 11 STH403-T/l

It is therefore understandable that the very early Chris-

tians avoided the teim, preferring initially the term "phi-
losophy", when a term was -needed to categorize their beliefs,
which were for them the "true philosophy". However, it was
inevitable that Christians would eventually take over the
word "theology", being in itself a more apt word.
The change came about not surprisingly in the East, in the
city famed for Christian learning: Alexandria. Clement had
respect for ancient wisdom, but he believed that all that was
~ood in it derived ~rom the lo!l_OS that had become flesh in
Jesus Christ. He is therefore quite happy to call such wisdom
theology (in the philosophical sense)- since it is a theology,
a wisdom, that derives ultimately from Christ. He also called
the old mythopoets "theologians". His pupil Origen took the
development an important step further by using the term for
Christian beliefs about God. By the time of Eusebius (mid 4th
century), the term is taken over so completely by Christians
in the East that it is now used exclusively for Christian
beliefs about God (not, however, for his saving work- that
was called "economy"). Its use becomes, in the East, so
frequent that with the advent of 6th century mysticism we
get further distinctions within the term: between mystical
and philosophical and affirmative and negative theology.
Of course a briefer summary is possible- and always useful
to attempt. The following is one example.
Meaning literally "talk about gods", theology originally
referred to the Greek myths about their gods. Aristotle
extended the meaning to include philosophical speculation
about the divine, while a third meaning was added still later:
the views on the gods officially and ritually fostered by the
state. Although they initially and understandably avoided
the term, the early Christians in the East eventually used it to
refer first to the good elements in ancient wisdom, which
they saw as deriving from Jesus Christ, and then
(exclusively) for their own beliefs about God (his saving work
was called "economy"). Under the influence of mysticism,
still further distinctions were made.
c
 12

CHAPTER 2

The Western Church

2.1 INTRODUCTION
In this brief chapter we will first of all see that Western
developments were much slower (1.2}, the first Christian use
of the term "theology" occurring in the 12th century (1.3},
leading to the meaning we are familiar with: theology as a
distinct discipline (1.4}. Finally, the advent of specialisation
led to a further nuance, completing the term's history (1.5}.

2.2 SLOWER WESTERN DEVELOPMENTS

In the West the word "theology" continued to have its pagan
connotations long after Eusebius had turned it into an
exclusively Christian term. H. Guthrie, in a footnote to his
English translation of Congar' s A History of Theology, sees in
this yet another example of the intellectual disparity between
East and West. He notes that thr Greeks were searching for
terms to express their meanings, while the Latins were still
trying to understand the meaning of terms. "It was", he says,
"an instance of the perennial disparity between the thinking
giver and the thought receiver" 1 This is a bit unfair,
particularly when you think that the period in question
included Augustine. However, there is nevertheless a good
deal of truth in this explanation for the tardy abandonment
in the West of the pagan meaning of the word "theology". The
West did not at first see quite the same vital synthesis
between the faith and philosophy as the East did, even
though the influence of philosophy on Western thinkers (e.g.,
Augustine} is obvious. Anyway, whatever the explanation,
Among the Latin Fathers up to and including St. Augus-
tine, the term theologia did not attain its own ecclesiasti-

(5)
 13 STH403-T/1

cal meaning. Several Fathers apparently do not even know

the term; e.g., Minucius Felix, St. Cyprian, St. Ambrose,
Arnobius, Boethius, and St. Gregory. Of course the term is
used when arguing with the pagans, but always in the
sense the latter give to it. Augustine, however, borrowing
the term from the pagans, examined its etymological sense
and stressed the fact that a true theology would lead them
to Christianity. But this true theology for him is still only a
philosophy which he considers worthy of the name and he
offers the example of Platonism. Beyond the fable theology
of the poets and even the natural theology ofVarro and the
Stoics, which is little more than an interpretation of the
world or, as we would say today, a sort of physics, St.
Augustine points to a theology more faithful to God, its
object, and for hirr:t t~is is Plato's philosophy. 2
What the Latins used for what we call "theology" today
were terms like doctrina christiana (Christian doctrine-
the term is Augustine's), sacra scriptura (sacred scripture),
sacra eruditio (sacred learning), sacra pagina (literally,
"sacred page" = sacred writing), divina pagina (divine
writing) and sacra doctrina (sacred doctrine).

2.3 12th CENTURY: ACHIEVES CHRISTIAN MEANING IN WEST

The changeover in the West to a Christian meaning for the
term came very late indeed- as late as the 12th century.
Already in the 6th century Boethius, through his translations,
had made known to the West some of Aristotle's thought.
Part of that thought was, as you saw, the idea that
metaphysics, which he also called "theology", was the
highest form of philosophy. Whether Boethius translated
Aristotle's Metaphysics is not certain but he certainly
introduced the West to Aristotle's threefold division of
philosophy into physical (it is now being called "natural"),
mathematical and theological. In the 9th century we find
John Scotus Erigena (810--877) using the term "theology" in a
similar way- i.e., as the highest form of philosophy.
However, as Ebeling notes 3 this idea of knowledge as
culminating in a philosophical theology did not bear fruit (in
the West) until the 12th century.
 14 '

It is Abelard (1079-1142) who was (so it seems)4 the first

Westerner to use the term in a Christian sense. He used
"theologia" to describe a summary of Christian doctrine that
he planned to write, but never completed. His followers also
used the term. However, here too we see the distinction
between the doctrine of God and the rest of Christian belief
that we saw amongst the Greeks. For Abelard's followers,
"theologia" was all about the one triune God. "Beneficia"
(literally, the "good things done" (by God for us), "benefits")
was the term used for soteriology and the study of the
sacraments. However, according to Congar "theologia" had
still not got the technical meaning of a discipline (like
"mathematics" or "philosophy"), but still refered simply to
certain ideas- i.e., ideas about God, etc. 5

2.4 THE FINAL STAGES: ;;THEOLOGY" = A DISTINCT DIS-

CIPLINE
When precisely this final step of regarding theologia as a
distinct discipline in its own right occurred, is not clear. We
saw how at almost the very beginning of its history the term
was used by Aristotle to refer to a part of a discipline:
philosophy. However, when exactly it was seen by Christians
in the West as a distinct discipline covering all the Christian
doctrines and able to stand alongside other disciplines as
part of an academic corpus is unclear.
What is clear is that this development took place by the
13th century. Congar says it took place in the 13th century. 6
However, what is also clear is that the formative stages of
theology's development as an academic discipline took place
in the 12th century. It is also clear that it was during th~ 12th
century that theologians were groping for a clear tei:m to
express the developing academic discipline. The major· factor
at work here was the rise of the universities and the
accompanying need for theologians to clarify the nature and
procedures of the subject they taught, and to distinguish it
from other disciplines (e.g. dialectics, grammar, rhetoric; see
chapter 10 below).
By the 13th century, then, "theology" emerges as a name
used to describe an academic discipline that is able to stand
alongside the other disciplines. Thus at the university of
 15 STH403-T/1

Paris we encounter in the first half of the 13th century a

facultas theologica, a faculty of theology. However, it took
some time before "theology" in the sense of a distinct
academic discipline was a commonly accepted and used term
amongst Christian thinkers. During the 13th century the
favourite terms were still the old ones (sacra doctrina, sacra
eruditio, etc.). Even in the writings of the undisputed giant of
13th century theologians - Thomas Aquinas - the word
does not occur all that often. In the original text of his
Summa Theologiae (more commonly known as the Summa
Theological it occurred only three times (later editions added
the word). Thomas' own word for what he is about to do is
sacra doctrina. He opens his Summa by enquiring whether
such a discipline as sacra doctrina is needed, apart from
philosophy. His answer is, of course, in the affirmative.
However, one of the objections he considers is this: "philo-
sophy studies all beings, even God; this is why the Philo-
sopher (i.e. Aristotle, whom Thomas always calls "the
Philosopher") calls one part of philosophy "theology", i.e.,
the science of divine things" .7 Therefore, any separate
discipline concerning divine matters would seem to be
unnecessary. Thomas' reply contains one of his rare uses of
the world "theology". He says that there are two types of
theology, "the theology that pertains to sacred doctrine, and
which differs radically from that theology that is part of
philosophy". 8 This distinction of "theology" into two types
later became the distinction on the one hand between
"natural theology" (or "theodicy"), which corresponded to
the philosophical investigation of God's existence and attri-
butes, and on the other hand what we may call "theology in
the strict sense", "theology proper" -i.e. what we today call
"theology".
In the 13th century, then, we see "theology" being used by
at least some authors (especially by Henry of Ghent- d.
1293) in the sense of a distinct academic discipline, one to
which even a separate "faculty" is devoted at one of the
infant universities (Paris). We also see Thomas Aquinas
distinguishing between this "theology" and a "theology" ·
that is really a part of philosophy, the former deriving its
knowledge from revelation, the latter exclusively from
reason.
 16

2.5 SPECIALISATION: "THEOLOGY" = A COLLECTION OF SUB-

DISCIPLINES
With that the term has come to mean more or less what it
means today: the study of the origin, meaning and influence
of God's revealed Word, to paraphrase A. Konig's des-
cription.9 The only further important development as regards
its meaning will be in connection with specialization. As
early as the 12th century one can see the outlines of some
future specializations taking place within theology. However,
it was only centuries later when these specializations
developed a sufficiently clear identity and degree of indepen-
dence as distinct subjects, that "theology" became a term
that referred to a collection of sub-disciplines (e.g. dog-
matics, moral theology, pastoral theology, biblical studies,
etc.). With that development, the history of the term is
complete.

2.6 SUMMARY
Once again, attempt your own summary before reading this.
Western developments were much slower. Right up to the
12th century the term retained its pagan meaning. Christians
in the West preferred to call their learning doctrina chris-
tiana, sacra eruditio, etc. In the 12th century, however, they
began to use the term "theology" for Christian learning,
though the old terms remained the favourite ones throughout
the 13th century. Nevertheless, by the 13th century "theo-
logy" was recognised as referring to the academic discipline
we today call by that name. The clear differentiation of
specialisations within theology added a further nuance to the
term, since it now also meant "a collection of sub-
disciplines".