Systematic Theology

Course Overview

Systematic Theology

Systematic theology is about organizing Christian beliefs into a structured framework. It pulls from various scriptures and Christian thought to create a unified view of key topics like the nature of God, the role of Jesus Christ, and the significance of the church.

Systematic theology involves “collecting, scientifically arranging, comparing, exhibiting, and defending… facts from any and every source concerning God and his words” in a carefully organized way and then making a claim on that data. It combines interpretation to discern the meaning of Scripture with biblical theology to process the historical-redemptive process of particular themes—but also leans on historical theology to “perceive how elements of truth have become formulated and later developed.”

“Systematic” refers to something being put into a system. Systematic theology is, therefore, the division of theology into systems that explain its various areas. For example, many books of the Bible give information about angels. No one book gives all the information about the angels. Systematic theology takes all the information about angels from all the books of the Bible and organizes it into a system called angelology. That is what systematic theology is all about—organizing the teachings of the Bible into categorical systems.

Theology proper, or Paterology, is the study of God the Father. Christology is the study of God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Pneumatology is the study of God the Holy Spirit. Bibliology is the study of the Bible. Soteriology is the study of salvation. Ecclesiology is the study of the church. Eschatology is the study of the end times. Angelology is the study of angels. Christian demonology is the study of demons from a Christian perspective. Christian anthropology is the study of humanity. Hamartiology is the study of sin. Systematic theology is an important tool for helping us understand and teach the Bible in an organized manner.

In addition to systematic theology, there are other ways that theology can be divided. Biblical theology is the study of a certain book (or books) of the Bible and emphasizing the different aspects of theology it focuses on.

An approach to the Bible that seeks to draw biblical teachings and themes into a self-consistent, coherent whole, in conversation with the history of Christian theological reflection and contemporary issues confronting the church. This is distinct from—yet related to—the approach of biblical theology, which focuses on the development of theological themes within individual books of the Bible or across one or both Testaments. The practice of biblical theology is often more closely intertwined with the practice of biblical studies, whereas systematic theology is usually viewed as a discipline that goes beyond the scope of biblical studies into church history, philosophy, and pastoral.