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The Development of the Word ‘Theology’1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Frank Whaling
Affiliation:
New College, Edinburgh

Extract

The word ‘theology’ can be and is used in a number of different ways. It has developed a variety of meanings, such that the use of this same word to allude to different concepts sometimes leads to confusion. In this paper I intend to look at the development of the word ‘theology’ without necessarily resolving the question of what theology is by reference to any one of the past meanings as a determining norm for a new quest. However, in the course of this analysis, certain suggestions will be made that may help to indicate directions for theology in our time.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1981

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References

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page 306 note 39 Nirvāṇa is described in absolute terms and the Dharma is taken to be pre-existent and eternal.

page 306 note 40 The same applies to the use of the word ‘philosophy’ when what is meant is ‘western philosophy’.

page 306 note 41 These options have been expressed perhaps with more sophistication within the Christian tradition but they are present to greater or lesser degree in all.

page 307 note 42 Barth and Kraemer are the best known Christian advocates of this view.

page 307 note 43 See van Leeuwen, A.Christianity in World History (Scribners, New York, 1964)Google Scholar. The thesis expressed here is being overturned by some modern thinkers within eastern religious groups who argue that the world needs not more secularization but more inwardness.

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page 307 note 46 It is arguable that dialogue is a method that can be used with the other theological options mentioned; it is also evolving a theological attitude of its own.

page 307 note 47 Classically in the work of Troeltsch after 1915, and in Hindu thinkers such as Ramakrishna.

page 307 note 48 The work of Wilfred Cantwell Smith remains one of the most promising forays into this area.

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page 311 note 53 W. C. Smith's four universal theological categories are: faith, tradition, religious truth, and participation. At least as important as his attempts to particularise these categories is his insistence that there are such categories.