Historical theology is the study of the history of Christian doctrine.
Grenz, Guretzki and Nordling describe it as, "The division of the theological discipline that seeks to understand and delineate how the church interpreted Scripture and developed doctrine throughout its history, from the time of the apostles to the present day. The twofold function of historical theology is to show the origin and development of beliefs held in the present day and to help contemporary theologians identify theological errors of the past that should be avoided in the present."
Overview
According to
Friedrich Schleiermacher, historical theology is a historical discipline, one that approaches areas of theology using methods that are employed in the study of any other historical phenomena.
This is based on the notion that theology has a historical rather than a speculative starting point. For instance, the Bible and the writings of ecumenical councils are considered as historical sources and their contents are treated as witness accounts. It covers the bulk of what Schleiermacher termed as the true body of theology and could include
exegetical theology
Exegesis ( ; from the Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations ...
,
dogma
Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Isla ...
tics, and
church history
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Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception.
Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritua ...
.
As a branch of
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
it investigates the socio-historical and cultural mechanisms that give rise to theological ideas, statements, and systems. The field focuses on the relationship between theology and its contexts, as well as on the major theological or
philosophical
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
influences upon the figures and topics studied. Its methodological foundation and aims are similar to those used by
intellectual historian
Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of intellectual histo ...
s researching historical epistemology, particularly those such as Matthew Daniel Eddy, who investigate the cultural connections between theology and other disciplines that existed in the past.
An evangelical position maintains that historical theology must be aligned with the word of God or that it must always reference the Scripture.
See also
*
History of Christianity
The history of Christianity concerns the Christianity, Christian religion, Christendom, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various Christian denomination, denominations, from the Christianity in the 1st century, 1st century ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*Noble, T. A. “Historical Theology.” Edited by Martin Davie, Tim Grass, Stephen R. Holmes, John McDowell, and T. A. Noble. New Dictionary of Theology: Historical and Systematic. London; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press; InterVarsity Press, 2016.
External links
HistoricalTheology.org- a site dedicated to the study of historical theology
Doctoral Study in Historical Theologyat Saint Louis University
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