Systematic theology
What does it teach as a whole?
It maps all the doctrines below and how the traditions arrange them. The doctrines are one common arrangement, not a fixed order.
- 17Fields
- 2,416Sources
- 191Key works
- 170Key terms
Reading order
Where to begin in this branch
Start with the fields the others build on.
Step 1: BibliologyThe doctrine of Scripture itself: revelation, inspiration and authority, and how each tradition understands the text.
Step 2: Theology properThe doctrine of God: who God is, the attributes and the Trinity, beginning with the question "Who is God?"
Step 3: ChristologyWho Jesus is, his person and his work: the center of Christian faith.
Step 4: PneumatologyThe doctrine of the Holy Spirit, where traditions differ sharply, from the filioque to the gifts.
Step 5: EschatologyThe last things: death, resurrection, judgment and the new creation. It draws strong interest and strong disagreement.
Step 6: EcclesiologyThe doctrine of the church. It pairs with the study of the churches and denominations, which treats the same subject from history.
Fields
The fields in this branch
The traditions agree that God has spoken and that Scripture is inspired, but differ on its truth, canon, text and authority; the study sets these out as eight questions from revelation to reception.
Where traditions divide
Catholics hold Scripture and Tradition as one deposit, Orthodox read Scripture within Tradition, Lutheran and Reformed make Scripture the only rule, and evangelicals debate inerrancy and infallibility.
Builds onTextual criticismRead the field: BibliologyMost churches confess Christ in the conciliar language formed from Nicaea (325) to Constantinople III (680 to 681), centred on Chalcedon's one person in two natures.
Where traditions divide
Chalcedon divided the Chalcedonian churches from the Oriental Orthodox and the Church of the East; Lutheran and Reformed later divided over Christ's humanity and the Supper.
Builds onNew TestamentRead the field: ChristologyThe study puts seven shared questions about God (who God is, how God is known, one and three, the attributes, God and the world) to about 25 traditions.
Read the field: Theology properWhere traditions divide
Traditions divide on how the divine attributes are described, between classical and newer accounts, and on the filioque.
The creedal core was settled in 381, confessing the Spirit as Lord and Giver of Life; Pentecostal and charismatic growth has made it one of theology's most active areas.
Where traditions divide
East and West divide on the filioque; continuationists and cessationists divide on Spirit baptism and the gifts; Jehovah's Witnesses describe the Spirit as a force, not a person.
Builds onNew TestamentRead the field: PneumatologyCreation from nothing and God's continuing providence are held across the historic traditions; seven readings of Genesis 1 and 2 are not mutually exclusive, and the science dialogue in depth is left to study 26.
Read the field: Creation and providenceWhere traditions divide
Traditions divide on how God's sovereignty relates to human freedom, eight positions from Thomist to open theism, on how to read the Genesis days, and on natural evil.
Angelology usually sits within the doctrine of creation; the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) taught that angels were created, and that the devil and demons were created good and fell by their own doing.
Read the field: AngelologyWhere traditions divide
Catholic and Orthodox churches honour angels and seek their intercession, Lutheran and Reformed confessions warn against invoking them, and Jehovah's Witnesses identify Michael with Jesus.
Salvation is studied as what Christ accomplished and how it reaches a person; several atonement models each have defenders and critics, and the 1999 Joint Declaration narrowed the old division over justification.
Read the field: SoteriologyWhere traditions divide
Catholics teach grace given in baptism with inner renewal; Orthodox, synergy and deification; Lutheran and Reformed, justification by faith alone; Methodists, prevenient grace and entire sanctification.
Nearly every tradition keeps baptism and the Lord's Supper but counts its rites differently: seven sacraments or mysteries in the Catholic and Eastern churches, two in most Protestant churches, ordinances for Baptists, none for Quakers.
Read the field: Sacramental theology and ordinancesWhere traditions divide
They divide on how the rites relate to grace and faith, on infant or believers' baptism, on how Christ is present, and on who presides and receives.
The Christian doctrine of the human person runs from creation in God's image to the fall, and remains active, with four readings of the image of God in open debate.
Where traditions divide
The Reformation and Trent divided the West on the will and original sin; Augustinian, federal and Orthodox models of sin, and different accounts of grace, remain distinct.
Builds onOld TestamentRead the field: Theological anthropologyInherited guilt resolves into four questions; the first two, a damaged human condition and mortality, are affirmed almost universally.
Where traditions divide
Traditions divide on whether Adam's act is counted to his descendants: Reformed and 1689 Baptist confessions affirm it; Orthodox, Church of the East and Adventist sources deny it.
Builds onTheological anthropologyRead the field: HamartiologyThe theology of the church's nature, origin, order and marks took its present shape in the twentieth century and is now a global field.
Read the field: EcclesiologyWhere traditions divide
Traditions divide on what makes the church visible: communion with Rome, Eucharistic and conciliar continuity, Word and sacraments rightly given, or the gathered congregation; succession and primacy stay sharpest.
The doctrine of the last things moved in the twentieth century from the end of dogmatics to its centre, and remains an active field.
Where traditions divide
Traditions divide on final destiny, purgatory, the intermediate state, and premillennial, postmillennial and amillennial readings.
Builds onNew TestamentRead the field: EschatologyThe law, prophets, Jesus and apostles shape Christian teaching on justice, authority and the vulnerable; most traditions distinguish spiritual and civil authority, and many churches' social teaching names dignity, the common good and the poor.
Read the field: Public, political and social theologyWhere traditions divide
Traditions, and groups within them, divide on church and state, force, the economy, the death penalty, migration, climate, nationalism, AI, and civil law on life and marriage.
Apologetics defends Christian faith through nine schools of method; arguments for God and the resurrection, and objections from evil and hiddenness, remain contested, with no side's case generally judged decisive.
Read the field: ApologeticsWhere traditions divide
They divide on method (evidence, presupposition or proper basicality), on whether apologetics should argue at all, on evil, hell and pluralism, and on mission to Jews and Muslims.
Over a century, named churches and official commissions have issued dated agreements on Christ, justification and baptism, and convergence texts on eucharist and ministry; their authority and reception vary, and none speaks for all.
Read the field: Ecumenical theologyWhere traditions divide
They divide on papal primacy, Scripture and Tradition, the Filioque, infant baptism, shared communion, orders, women's ordination, sexuality, Mary and the form of visible unity.
The New Testament gives Mary a brief, pivotal role. Ephesus confirmed her as Theotokos (431); Rome defined two Catholic dogmas (1854, 1950); honour of the saints grew from remembering the martyrs.
Read the field: Mariology and the saintsWhere traditions divide
They divide on calling Mary Mother of God, her perpetual virginity, the 1854 and 1950 dogmas, asking Mary and the saints to pray, apparitions, and relics and images.
The theology map
