Theology uses documents, philosophy uses reason.

@Dichanthelium,

Dichanthelium wrote:

Wouldn't it be more accurate to say:

"Theology uses documents and reason, as does philosophy."

Philosophy can be just reason, theology is only documents.

@xris,

How is theology "only documents"? Theology, like philosophy, utilizes documents. Both also utilize reason. Both also make use of personal experience.

Theology and philosophy were the same study until relatively recently. The difference between theology and modern philosophy is that modern philosophy is secular: modern philosophy need not relate to God.

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@Didymos Thomas,

Didymos Thomas wrote:

How is theology "only documents"? Theology, like philosophy, utilizes documents. Both also utilize reason. Both also make use of personal experience.

Theology and philosophy were the same study until relatively recently. The difference between theology and modern philosophy is that modern philosophy is secular: modern philosophy need not relate to God.

So what is the reason in belief through documents ?

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@xris,

I'm not sure what you mean by "belief through documents".

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@Didymos Thomas,

Didymos Thomas wrote:

I'm not sure what you mean by "belief through documents".

So what is belief in theological terms ? what else has it but documents.Reasons ?I dont think so just justification..

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@xris,

xris wrote:

So what is belief in theological terms ? what else has it but documents.Reasons ?I dont think so just justification..

Not sure where you are headed with this, but I would say that "belief" can mean "mental assent," meaning, "I accept this as the truth."

But it could also be "trust in something or somebody," right? "I truly believe in my team! I just know they will win."

So to believe in God seems to include both notions. You can believe God exists "mental assent to the proposition," and you can say, "I truly believe in God! I know he is doing a good thing in the universe."

There are documents that support theism, but there are also rational arguments, and so-called "natural revelation."

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@Dichanthelium,

xris wrote:

So what is belief in theological terms ? what else has it but documents.Reasons ?I dont think so just justification..

To believe in something is to think of some statement or proposition as being true.

The documents used in theology are not accepted for no reason. Depending upon the nature of the document, different criteria may be used.

Theologians justify belief through reason, personal experience, mystical revelation and so forth. Depends on the particular topic, the theological tradition and a host of other factors.

If you take the time to read some theology, you will find that reasons are given. You might skim through some Aquinas for an example.

Nothing beats finding out for yourself. Go sample some theology.

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@Didymos Thomas,

Sorry from my perspective there is no reasoning in believing in scriptures.I listen while theological debate tries to reason about the triology , why you either accept it as the word of god or not,each part is part of the whole.Take one brick out of the wall and you have not got a wall.

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@xris,

xris wrote:

Sorry from my perspective there is no reasoning in believing in scriptures.I listen while theological debate tries to reason about the triology , why you either accept it as the word of god or not,each part is part of the whole.Take one brick out of the wall and you have not got a wall.

Your expression, "believing in scriptures" apparently represents the idea "accepting as absolutely true every part of the Bible."

I know people who have adopted that perspective, and though I disagree with them, it's not fair to say that "there is no reasoning" in that position. There is a lot of reasoning going on, but I do not find their reasoning persuasive.

As for the brick wall analogy, I would say that there's no need to adopt such an all-or-nothing stance. I'm quite confident that you and I would agree on many of the statements in the book of Proverbs, for example.

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@Dichanthelium,

Dichanthelium wrote:

Your expression, "believing in scriptures" apparently represents the idea "accepting as absolutely true every part of the Bible."

I know people who have adopted that perspective, and though I disagree with them, it's not fair to say that "there is no reasoning" in that position. There is a lot of reasoning going on, but I do not find their reasoning persuasive.

As for the brick wall analogy, I would say that there's no need to adopt such an all-or-nothing stance. I'm quite confident that you and I would agree on many of the statements in the book of Proverbs, for example.

Its the principle of segregation by sectioning the bible into what is applicable and what is not.The Baptist of who i was once one ,separated themselves from the methodist for some silly reason and it carries on.C ofE convert to RC etc etc..If this god was so magnificent surely the first thing he should of done was to be bit more precise in his attention to his law.The book is not gods word or should it be conceived of as his word so why quibble over its content by scrutinising every chapter and verse. AS an agnostic i cant understand the attention to a book written by man.

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@xris,

Wherever this discussion may lead, it occurs to me that some of us may want to request that the site administrators remove the statement, "Theology uses documents, philosophy uses reason" from the heading above. It oversimplifies a complex topic and implies that theology restricts it's concerns to "documents." It also falsely implies that theology and philosophy employ significantly different methods in their discourses.

To that end, I hereby respectfully request that the site administrators remove the statement.

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@Dichanthelium,

Uumm... didn't you start this thread dude? If ya didn't like the title, why'd you use it? :whoa-dude:

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@Solace,

Solace wrote:

Uumm... didn't you start this thread dude? If ya didn't like the title, why'd you use it? :whoa-dude:

Just to try to draw attention to the very point!

1 Reply

@Dichanthelium,

Then your reason was a good one and it remains. The title is fine imo. Making a title and then effectively arguing against it is a good way to go about it.:a-ok:

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Theology uses documents, philosophy uses reason.

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