The Difficulty of Theology

Theology is the study of God.

Seems simple, huh? But in reality, theology is very complicated. Beginning the process of theology can be terribly confusing if we think about it. It's so much simpler if we just ignore HOW we do theology and just do it. Of course, so many missteps can be made as well.

Why is theology so complicated? I'll give you three reasons:

1. Theology is primarily a cultural project.
The importance and structure of theology is determined by what culture you are in. Culture determines the nature of theology and its practice. Theology is different in Hinduism than in Shinto Buddhism than in Tibetan Buddhism than secular philosophy (a denial of God is also a theology, the benefit of which is it's simplicity, if not it's truth). All of these cultural practices clutter theology and make the term almost meaningless, certainly as a measure of truth.

2. Christian theology has been practiced in many ways.
Christian theology is also a cultural practice and it has been done in many ways. Here's a few:

a. Philosophical Theology
This is determining what is true by drawing conclusions based on logical thought. In Christian theology, this is often begun by biblical principles and then drawing conclusions beyond the Bible. Most Trinitarian theology is philosophical.

b. Community Theology
This is listening to a Christian community and thus determining what their theology is. This is more descriptive than prescriptive, and the only basis of understanding is the community description itself. Liberation theology began this way.

c. "Biblical" Theology
All Christian theology claims to be based on the Bible, but few theologies are actually descriptions of only what the Bible says. However, there are different approaches to determining what the Bible says.
-There is theology that is "proven" by select verses throughout the Bible.
-There is theology that is a description of themes throughout the canonical scriptures.
-There are studies of a limited part of the Bible, usually focused around one author or book. This is often described in contrast to other theologies of the Bible.

3. God is not Easy To Understand
Theology is not a "hard" science, like physics or chemistry. We cannot do repeated experiments on God. Nor is God easily observable like human behavior or biology. God exists in a different universe, is of a different nature than ourselves and is a personality rather than an entity. At best, this makes a "study" of God difficult, if not impossible.