What is Theology?

What is Theology?

Religions usually have a "theology" and if you want to understand a religion, you would want to understand its theology.

So, first, what is a theology, and what is the purpose of a theology?

For our church's religion, our theology is our shared answers to such questions as:

• What is Ultimate?

• What is worthy of worship?

• What do we regard as sacred and divine? 

• Why is the Ultimate important to us?

• How shall we express our worship of our Sacred/Divine/Ultimate?

• How does our shared understanding of the Ultimate, its importance to us, and how we choose to express our worship, naturally express itself in the structure and processes of our church and in what we offer to the world (our ministries)?

Our answers can be found in briefest form in our church brochure.

For us, there is a second layer of understanding. The purpose of our religion's theology is to not only provide us as a church with answers to those questions, it is also to provide us as individuals with answers to the following questions:

Given what we as a church worship as Ultimate,  

• what does that imply about who I am, ultimately, about what my true nature is, who I am, "who I be"? 
• And in turn, what does who I am imply about how I live my own life: 

• what I do, 
• what I value, 
• how I relate to others, 
• what I regard as real, and
• what I regard as important?

Wikipedia's description of a theology indicates that it studies "the divine," deities and scriptures, and revelations by deities, to help us live in greater understanding of basic concepts about life, and to help us live in obedience to the deities we follow or worship.

All of those elements can be found in our theology as described in our church brochure--except that we would substitute "integrity" for "obedience."

A religious "theology" is for us different from a "philosophy of life" because a philosophy is "secular." Like religion, philosophy asks about what is important and even ultimate, and how to best live life. However, there is no reference to sacred, divine, deities, worship, religion, or ministries. let alone referring to a church formed to express shared understandings and to worship together. 

This blogpost is part of a four-part series. The others are What is Religion?, What Does "Divine" Mean?, and What Do "Sacred" and "Divine" Mean?

Questions and comments welcome below!

by Rev. Alia Aurami, Ph.D., Head Minister, Amplifying Divine Light in All Church

"Amplifying Divine Light in All" is a completely independent church fostering empowerment of people to co-create loving, thriving God-realized lives, and wellbeing for everyone, on a clean, peaceful Earth.

Our main religious purpose and mission is to amplify the Divine Light in everyone. When you read this article, you will agree or disagree with its various points, and then you will know more about what is true for you. Knowing more of your own Truth amplifies your Divine Light. Thus providing/presenting this article is one way for us to accomplish our purpose and mission. 

This article and our providing/presenting it are therefore a central and essential part of our exercise and practice of our religion. 

None of the contents herein are claimed as absolute truth. They represent one possible perspective which might prove useful for you. All results from using anything written in this blog are solely your own responsibility, which you assume by reading.

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