What is Systematic theology?
Our first module was on biblical theology, which we said is about doing theology in the way the Bible does it. But scripture testifies to another way of doing theology:
[God’s] invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. (Rom 1:20)
Here the Apostle Paul tells us that even if we didn’t have scripture, we would be able to know about God from how he has revealed himself in nature. Just as a painter can be known by his paintings, so too can the creator be known by his creation. But how do we faithfully combine what we can know from the Bible with what we can know from nature, into a system of thought about God and his creation? That’s precisely the task of systematic theology.
Now, some theologians limit systematic theology to only what the Bible says. We can see the value in this approach, since the Bible has a lot to say on many topics. But here at Faith Seeking Understanding we think that it’s important for us to use everything God has given us to learn about him. And since the Bible tells us that there is knowledge available through nature, we think it’s best to develop the tools to read the “book of nature” together with the Bible. The proper methodology won’t pit these against one another, but combine what we can learn from each in proper harmony.
Organising and Combining
When God reveals truths about himself in scripture we call it “special” revelation, and when he reveals truth about himself through natural we call it “general” revelation. When we seek to understand a particular topic, special revelation gives us various passages that we can organize and interpret while general revelation provides us with various concepts and conclusions. The task of systematic theology is to organize what we can learn from each of these on their own, and then combine them together to produce a final more comprehensive view on the topic.
Think about how we go about studying the Trinity: we draw on passages like John 5 and 1 Corinthians 2, and we combine these with philosophical concepts such as person and substance. Together, we build a model of how the Trinity works that is consistent with what God has revealed about himself in scripture.
Now, depending on the topic we’re studying, there are different ways this combination can work:
Scripture teaches something philosophy does not.
Philosophy teaches something scripture does not.
Scripture and philosophy teach us the same things about God, in different ways.
Scripture and philosophy teach us different by complementary things about God.
It’s important to keep in mind that (2) and (4) are real possibilities. In these cases, if we try to make the Bible answer all sorts of questions it never intended to then we end up twisting its meaning beyond what the original authors intended. When we do this, we prevent God’s word from acting as it was intended and make it into something else entirely.
Where do we start?
The obvious place to start to see how this all works together is with God himself! Thus, in our Know Thy Maker module we look at four important facts about God: that he is the creator, that he is in control of everything, that he is simple, and that he is eternal. In fact, the last three are all consequences of him being the creator, which is something we explore in each of the lessons.
In the course of the lessons in this module, we see theology and philosophy work together in different ways. When looking at God as the creator, we see how both scripture and philosophy teach us that God is the supreme and powerful creator over everything, but do so using different words. When looking God being in control and being eternal, we see how scripture teaches us important facts about God and ourselves without telling us how all of those facts are supposed to work out, and how philosophy can fill in these details. And when looking at God’s simplicity, we how philosophy teaches us something important about God that is only hinted at in scripture, but which is definitely there when you know what look for.
Interested in seeing how these work out? Then head on over to the module page and see for yourself!