1. What Does The Bible Say? Why Does It Matter?

Theology translates to “God-Talk.” Weafer explains that if Christian theology is meant to assist in the understanding of modern day and past interpretations. Therefore, Christian thought will explore many aspects of Christian belief. There are four sources for Christian thought. They are the Bible, tradition, reason and experience. The Bible refers to specific writings that are inspire by God and believed to be holy. When God reveals himself it is called a revolution. When Christian study the bible they try to understand God and what God is saying. Tradition refers to the collected writing, practices, artifacts, and wisdom handed down from one generation to the next. Reason is the rational thought , inquiry, and intellectual thought process of a human being. Experience comes from within.

His methodology ties life in the early church with today’s everyday believers, which will help them to understand rudimentary theology. Hall begins by preparing the reader to learn theology from the Church Fathers by asking crucial questions and giving background information to explain

As we bring our upbringing, faith commitment, past experience and reflections to bear on everything we do, we now stand back and go to the sources that for Christians should provide the moral insight needed to proceed: (1) Scripture; (2) Tradition; (3) Reason; and (4) Experience. As it is generally believed today that the canon of Scripture was put together through a sincere act of discernment by the Christian community and that it is truly the coming together of the human and the divine, we begin our investigation with Scripture. We will then look at the remaining three: tradition; reason; and experience in light of Scripture.

The next question in line is our purpose here; man was created to fellowship with God. Enjoying a personal relationship with our God and Creator is the main purpose for our existence (1 Corinthians 1:9). God gave us the choice that we might choose life and a fellowship with him (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). No choice and the relationship would not be truly personal it would be ordered and we would be puppets. With choice comes morality and how we have learned right from wrong. This knowledge is obtained by reading and studying God’s word the Holy Bible. The answers to how we need to live can be answered with the instructions provided in God’s word. We are told what is right and what is wrong. (Exodus 20:3-17). We are also told that we have all sinned (Romans 2:23) and that sin leads to death (Romans 6:23). All of this

According to Pew Research Center in 2015, there were counted to be 2.3 billion Christians in this world (Hackett, & McClendon,2017). What does it take to be a Christian, one should accept God into their life, heart, soul, and mind? Accepting God into one’s life consist of studying the nature of God, by reading the Bible daily, and mediating on the scripture both night and day. In this essay of Christian theology, a new believer, or those that are an undecided believer of God, will know the four sources of Christian theology, what makes the four sources important to Christian living, the limitations of these four sources, and lastly the positive and negatives of philosophy and theology.

Therefore, all is contingent upon the importance of root disciplines within theology’s foundations, theory, and practice. Further defined, theory encompasses biblical and systematic studies while the exegetical method relies on biblical theology as the text source for the science. Thus, systematic theology considers the science of ideas within the church and the church’s body and data originates within Biblical

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century the nature and authority of scripture have been issues regarding the Christian Faith. Throughout this paper the nature and authority of scripture will be surveyed in reference to three theological movements: Evangelical, Liberal, and Neo-Orthodox. All three theological movements will be explored by examining the issues, implications, and analysis and application of the Evangelical, Liberal, and Neo-Orthodox movements.

The authors focus on the continuous practice of “reflective discernment,” to help church leaders learn what is the idea required for a church to depend on God. (39) One of the authors named Mark mentions an instance when he as a university chaplain intern, was invited by an African American student and experienced a group prayer. Because Mark was a Scotch-Irish, his initial experience of prayer in this group of students made no sense to him. Later he realized that it was the use of language that had left a different impression on Mark. Also, he felt that his own theology in comparison to one of the students named Keith who invited him was not the same. (40)The author Mark mentions that after his reflective discernment, Keith’s theology started making sense to him and differences that seemed differences to him in theology, began changing. This instance, reminds me when I first visited the Evanston Vineyard, a non-denominational church, which is the same church where I am serving as a Pastoral Intern. The first time I attended a service here, I noticed an African American woman responding in words to the pastor’s sermon. At first, I felt very annoyed, after

Just what is theology? This question can have a wide variety of answers, from irrelevant facts about God thought up by men centuries ago, to complicated theories discussed by scholars. Typically, the average 21st century man does not consider theology as relevant. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Theology by definition has the characteristics of both expounding the truth, and impacting the believer with that truth (Himes, 2011). Therefore, theology and the church are intricately combined, in that the church embodies the revelation of God, and is reality, not theory (Himes, 2011). A personal practical theology must begin with revelation, not the individual (Himes, 2011), and proclaim

Throughout history, both theology and religion have been topics that have sparked global curiosity. I have always wondered, what is so special about theology and what does it actually have to do with our society? Reading deeper into J.J Mueller SJ’s Theological Foundations, I took in a clear understanding that religion plays a role in all aspects of our lives in many different ways, and there is no simple answer. The first critical point that I identified with was the simple fact that it is okay to ask questions about religion. On page 9, Mueller SJ compares asking questions about religion to asking questions about a friend. He explains that asking questions is healthy and vital to understanding any situation from religion, to friendships, and especially intimate relationships. Growing up in a

Christianity, one of the oldest recorded religions of all time, throughout the centuries it has been distorted, mangled, and changed vigorously. Over 21,000 denominations exist, they range from slightly different to wildly conflicting, discrepancies have become a common occurrence. With such a host of diversity, God’s true message has faded and become lost I the sheer number of unique interpretations. Thankfully, at the base of all sects one thing is clear, God’s desire for us to succeed and grow in him, through prayer and study of his nature. He actively seeks out a relationship with us and to reach his kingdom we must reciprocate his love and attempt to show his light through ourselves. With such an insurmountable number of sects, finding the Lord’s true message becomes extremely difficult and seemingly impossible. I believe that the myriad of denominations detracts from the message of God;

The most striking topic in which we have discussed so far in this course has been the four pillars of Christian theology. The four pillars of Christian theology that Natalie Weaver discusses in Christian Thought and Practice are the Bible, tradition, reason, and experience. Understanding these four pillars of Christian theology is essential to understanding the religion and how scholars study the faith. The first pillar of Christian theology is the bible, all Christian faiths have a bible and it is there sacred text in which they obtain their teachings.

Religious beliefs have been around for almost as long as man himself, emphasizing the importance of existential meaning. These beliefs hold very important values that are often neglected by many. Almost every religion teaches the overall importance of morality, defining the need for one to protect themselves and others from the dangers that are present in the world. However, many religions have conflicting views on the ideals that are not related to morality. For example, Judaism teaches that the Messiah, or Son of God, has yet to arrive on Earth, while Christianity teaches that the Messiah had already appeared as Jesus Christ, and they are awaiting the Second Coming. This is a very contradictory aspect of either faith, and would be expected to cause much rage between the two faiths. Yet, this anger has been subsided through the very similar teachings of both religions. Both Judaism and Christianity have sacred text known as the Ten Commandments, which are religious laws emphasizing the importance of morality and, of course, faith.

Normative task of practical theological interpretation asks, “What ought to be going on?”, “How might you interpret the situation theologically?” It seeks to discern. As the leader of a Christian congregation, you must take the further step of drawing on the beliefs and practices of this community in your ministry. 1531-1534 Kindle Edition

The Word of God is an essential component of the foundation of one 's faith. Ultimately, the concepts that are disclosed through the Word of God are those that the believer abides to throughout the theological journey is his or her life. First, we must understand what the Word of God is and how it functions as a sacrament. In essence, the Word of God is the manifestation of Jesus Christ himself but more importantly, the Word of God is the word of God 's grace. Now, one can begin to understand how the Word of God functions as a sacrament. Ultimately, the sacrament functions as an instrument to disclose God 's desire. The Word of God, therefore, functions as a sacrament as it discloses the infinite potential of God whose ultimate purpose is to allow a human to experience their ultimate potential. In this case, the Word of God, functions as a sacrament as it demonstrates a theological association with the physical, Jesus Christ, and the mystical, God 's ultimate desire to allow humans to experience their true capacity. Finally, however, one must understand the function of the church in the context of the Word of God and its sacramental nature. As mentioned, the Word of God is discloses God 's ultimate desire to allow a human to reach his or her ultimate capacity. However, the Word alone is not sufficient to work faith and conversion, but is yet the necessary instrument. This is where the role of the church becomes important with the function of the Word of