What Is Theology?

If you were to ask most people in our modern world what they thought or knew about theology, I believe very few would have a great deal of confidence in giving an adequate response. The discipline itself is dominated by words such as faith, revelation, eschatology and redemption. Such terms may offer even more difficulties for individuals. Theology is often looked upon by people as a very diverse and complicated subject. There are so many aspects and systems within theology that people may feel overwhelmed. Protestant or Catholic, liberation or feminist, positive or speculative, the list just goes on and on. As theology is such an immense subject, in this essay I will attempt to simply define the word itself, give a brief history of its development and outline some of the major areas of relevance in theology. …