Personal Theological Credos (original) (raw)

Introduction to Theology

Firmly held beliefs determines the way people see the world, the way they make meaning of their lives and the way they live those lives.

Parts of Credo: Prologamena and Doctrine of God

Credo is a requirement of a year-long systematic theology class at Perkins School of Theology. In the parts of Prologamena and Doctrine of God, I argue that theology is a on-going constructive work of God that humans are called to be the agents of the dramatic salvific history by God.

Christian Theology: The Basic Components of Faith and Life (Fall 2022)

This course introduces students to the major Christian doctrines. It will survey the principal doctrinal loci --such as revelation, creation, God/Trinity, Christology, ecclesiology, and eschatology-- from various theological perspectives, including contemporary feminist, black, and liberation theologies. The course will help students to connect theology with personal faith, ecclesial ministry, and social change.

THIS I BELIEVE: Summarising my Christian belief through statements

In this short volume author, pastoral theologian John Douglas offers a set of summaries of Christian beliefs. The written text arises from a combination of two learning-experiences. The first over a definite time period; and the other his Christian pilgrimage up to 1991. The former represents his two years spent at Denver Seminary completing a Master’s degree in Christian education and theology. He states; “In 1989, having chosen to devote the time to study, soon discovered my pursuit of learning required taking classes in graduate level systematic theology. Theology has long been one of the loves of my life. My first recollections of theology arise from the vivid memories of Bible classes, the systematic preaching of my former and formative pastors and the focused love from teaching in classes at Te Nikau BTC since 1976. To me theology has been ‘The contemporary application of our Christian belief or doctrine’. It is the nature of God and eternal truth speaking into the present world. Theology of necessity is communicable and practical faith.” A course requirement of the five systematic theology classes taken in seminary was to write one’s belief in plain English. These pages are those statements, plus some revisiting. Another requirement of the original writing task was to identify the view of doctrine that one would consider the greatest erosive threat to your position. Then having identified the specific view; enunciate the basic reason why this should be so. He has left those paragraphs in the work. Douglas also notes; “This treatment is not an aimed personal attack towards others, but provides an example in knowing why one does not believe some things.”

Spirituality and Theology - the Place for Personal Faith Experience in Theological Education

Balázs Siba , 2019

A student of mine who intended to write his thesis about the topic of spirituality came up to me and asked indignantly: “Why is it that Reformed pastors go to the Jesuits in secret to learn spiritual leadership? Why isn’t there a Protestant institution dedicated to spirituality?” We may answer the question with a question: “Why do we need to engage with the topic of spirituality separately? Is it not what seminary is dedicated to teach anyhow?” In this paper, seeking answers to these questions, I will introduce a number of aspects of personal spiritual experience within theological education. 11th International Conference of J. Selye University. Theological Section. Conference Proceedings, editors: J. Bukor, A. Lévai, Publisher: J. Selye University, Komárno, Slovakia, PY, pages: 2019, 149-155.