What is Theology?

What is Theology? As a Theologian, this is the first question to be answered before any theologians are engaging with Theology itself, or being called as a Theologian in a formal sense. Needless to say, the answer is vary. Base on the etymology of the word, Theology is a combination of two Greek words, Theos (God) and Logos (study). From here, we can derived at very basic definition that Theology is the study of God. The study can be taken in three settings, academics as science, church as dogmatic, and daily life as life-world. The alleged understanding of Theology are either Theology as the study of God in academic setting, or in the church/religious setting. Yet both are very exclusive in nature and sound ivory high. However, very few people discern Theology as something related to daily life, a kind of life-world, an innate frame-work of human that would help everyone to see, act, respond, relate to the world surround them better. Through the continuous process of studying Theology, interacting with the world with that framework in mind, and experiencing lively the process, one also will be growing in their understanding and wisdom, to know the personal God, who interact with the world, the act of God, from which He created the world, the mind of God, from which He established the law of the world. Life-World was a concept that was famously and frequently used by German philosopher, Edmund Husserl which means, the world of everyday experience, the personal world in which we perceived the world or to put it precisely, the  subjective world of a person. 

Theology as Life-world helps people to see the world personally with God's lens as it had been revealed through His Word, in the Sacred Scripture so consequently, our experience is not fully subjective or subjective to the extreme, which often lead to prejudice and deception, rather to the truth of things. Not just Theology is for individual, theology indeed offer a communal dimension as well. Through conversation and constant dialogue with other people's Theology, we are cultivating others and our own personal life-world.  Most importantly without ever digging deeper to Theology, there is no solid metaphysical ground of human life-World will be established. Of course one can applied to Religious treasuries for metaphysical foundation of their daily experiences however, religion cannot be the basic foundation of  our life-world because it start from human experience of divine not the divine revelation to man. There is a Theology of religion but there is no religion of Theology. Theology as life-world provides the rational framework of the experience in one particular religion, but not the other-way round. Apparently, Philosophy of Plato or Aristotle can also provide the metaphysical foundation of one life-world yet, at best, it could only stop to provide the lens in us to answer what is the nature of things and principle of things but not to answer why the nature of things or principle of things need to be existed in the first place as the oldest Philosophical problem echoes, "why is something rather than nothing?" Thus, Theology moves one step further than Philosophy ever be for it leap us to God, the ultimate 'Why'. As consequence of the metaphysical frame-work of Theology, the horizon of people's life world is expanded, and they are invited to see things beyond what meets the eyes. Everything that happened in the world is not a coincidence. The reality is not merely physical. The movements of the atoms and sub-particles in the world are not irregular, without any purpose but has a transcendental causes and ultimate design as Thomas Aquinas view rightly expresses, God, as the unmoved mover, is the first cause of everything that moves in the world. There is a notion of divine transcendence in each and every corner of the immanent world by which we can feel, know, and interact with when we are studying Theology, and let it be shaped and formed our life-world. 

Without Theology, we will certainly misses lot of stunning experiences in our lives. To put into an illustration, It's like we are enjoying the black-white television all this time, without knowing that actually, there is a color television had been created out there. Not just stop in a personal experience of things, eventually Theology will affect our lives, our actions and transform our ethics. To experience life to the fullest, everyone needs Theology and as a matter of  fact, everyone has in their heart a deep desire to engage and deal with Theology because there is always a sense of divinity embedded in our being (Sensus Divinitas).  Apostle Paul reveal this passionate desire in Philippians 3:10, "I want to Know Christ (God)..." Either people ignore the desire, or they acknowledge it, and set their steps into the journey, to fulfill God given desire to experience Him more! St. Augustine in the past proclaimed, "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee."