The Importance of Theology

In class today, we discussed the difference between theology and religious studies. Theology is what people believe and how they view the world "from the inside [of religion] out" while religious studies looks at why and how people believe, studying patterns of belief from the outside in. I would argue that by that definition, religious studies is missing out on an essential element of the study of religion. It's only looking at half the picture. I admit that I am biased in this opinion because my own faith and theology are very important to me, but I believe that it's important for anyone studying religion to look at both the theological and academic sides of it.

Prof. Smith mentioned how it's so hard to get people to think about religion in terms of religious studies (patterns, "big picture religion," etc.) instead of theology, and I think that is a clue that theology is a very important aspect of religion. I'm not saying one should ignore the academic, objective study of religion, but I don't think we should ignore the theological either. I don't think it makes sense to exclude most people's idea of religion from the study. In my opinion, what tends to happen when we do that is we dismiss religion as completely fabricated without first examining it from the perspective of a believer. Like I said in my first post, I see religion as inherently out of the realm of empirical knowledge and study, so an academic study of religion that only uses an empirical lens is incomplete. I think we should take time to look through both the lens of science/logic and the lens (or theology) of the religion itself. Even though theology is not based on empirical evidence, it does make sense when approached with the mindset that it could be true, whereas I feel like religious studies is very skeptical of that and doesn't address it at all. (Again, this is my personal opinion and I could be wrong.)

We established in class that even in religious studies, it becomes necessary to study theology when looking at how religion affects (and is affected by) social change. I believe this is because theology profoundly influences how people behave--it is, after all, their entire worldview. The things we've discussed in class that are part of religion such as social identity and creating meaning are rooted in theology. A believer's identity is based on his or her belief as to the relationship of human beings to the universe and/or higher power. Theology tells believers if they are to be part of close-knit groups or seclude themselves for private meditation. And obviously, it's theology that defines the meaning that believers find in life. So much of religion is, like this, rooted in the inside that studying it purely academically--from the outside--comes up short.