The Four Disciplines of Theology - Systematic, Biblical, Historical, Philosophical

The Relationship Between The Four Disciplines of Theological Studies

Systematic theology deals with the “development of doctrine in the Church’s history, the totality of biblical revelation and extra-biblical truth, and draws out the teachings of Scripture via sound grammatical, historical and cultural exegesis”[1]. Practically speaking, Systematic theology is a discipline that contextualizes theology to make it palatable for every generation. It pulls together other branches of theology to create a more coherent means of knowing God’s truth. 

According to Elwell[2]Biblical theology “explores the truth and message of biblical books by a grouping mechanism”, Historical theology “traces the church’s faith topically through the various eras of its history”, and Philosophical theology seeks to provide a thinking mechanism for the defense of the faith. While Systematic theology is considered a science, it is more accurately concerned with “God’s salvation history with His people, the utterances of divinely ordained prophets and apostles and the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ”[3]. 

The Holy Spirit - His Role

The Holy Spirit – The Most Neglected Essential Resource.

Without a doubt, the Holy Spirit is the most neglected and underutilized of the three resources. He is given to believers at salvation (Acts 15:8, 1 John 5:10) and is continually engaged in the process of perfecting the saints (Hebrews 10:14-15, Romans 15:16, 1 Corinthians 6:11). While we know that He (the Holy Spirit) is God, we are often less inclined to obey and to totally trust in Him in the face of the pressure from the world, the flesh and the enemy of God. But believers would do well to be reminded of His unique role as helper and counselor who abides with and within each child of God(John 14:16-18). While the church is aware of who He is, considerably less  teaching is given on His person and work (at least in the Charismatic/Pentecostal circles to which I have been exposed for the past 15 years). We pray to Him, seek Him, know that He is the only way to eternal life (John 14:6), but more could be done to examine His person and work outside of the emotionalism involved with the worship of this member of the Trinity – after-all, anyone that worships Him must do so in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). He primarily has two functions – (1) gives knowledge and (2) gives power[1]. We can therefore sum up His role as ‘the helper of the believer {John 14:16). The Greek word for “helper” is “parakletos” which means “one called or summoned along the side of another to help; a comforter, advocate or an intercessor”[2]. While the church is fascinated by His work (e.g. miracles, signs, wonders and exorcisms) and seemingly is hungering for a return of the first century New Testament church, I believe we still have much work in developing the theology of the Holy Spirit in these two roles.