I was thrilled with your initial description of the four traditional areas of theology, with new frameworks for approaching them: "creation metaphysics, realist epistemology, hylomorphic anthropology, and objective ethics." I have found my unifying theme or principle for theology to be the Incarnation. Please excuse my lack of formal theological training. I will express as best as I can what I mean below.
The Incarnation that unique moment when God not only enters into his creation but somehow sanctifies and elevates the material world and all his creatures to share with the Divine. This one act creates a new understanding of metaphysics. It is a mystery of great power and subtlety. In it God defines all of the terms of metaphysics. The Incarnation is the consummation of God's creative work. Creation is transformed by the Incarnation because it reveals God's incredible desire to unite the material with the spiritual.
The Incarnation also establishes the necessity that epistemology be realist. If God grounds his universe in himself, the source of purpose, prudence, understanding, and wisdom, then everything having to do with how we know is grounded in the reality of the Incarnation. Christ knows now both as God and man.
The hylomorphic nature of Christian anthropology is equally revealed by the Incarnation. Christ has two natures in one person. His human nature, that which defines us as human, is the uniting of form (soul) with the substance of the body. They must be together, one thing, the human person. The Incarnation introduced the divine nature of the Son of God at the same time as the egg received a human soul at conception, to become a living person with two natures.
Lastly, ethics must be objective because of the Incarnation, because He knows our weakness and our sin, as well as the great gift of being able to be redeemed and restored. The just Judge has entered the world, and subjectivity has no place. He is the truth.
I'd appreciate any comments. This is what came to me when I saw in those four proposed approaches
In 1967 I studied Dogmatic Theology. Currently, I only hear of Systematic Theology, the term which, I believe has always been used in Protestant seminaries. Somewhere between "Dogmatic" and "Systematic" it seems that Theology lost it's coherence. But, what do I know. I studied Theology 58 years ago.
I was thrilled with your initial description of the four traditional areas of theology, with new frameworks for approaching them: "creation metaphysics, realist epistemology, hylomorphic anthropology, and objective ethics." I have found my unifying theme or principle for theology to be the Incarnation. Please excuse my lack of formal theological training. I will express as best as I can what I mean below.
The Incarnation that unique moment when God not only enters into his creation but somehow sanctifies and elevates the material world and all his creatures to share with the Divine. This one act creates a new understanding of metaphysics. It is a mystery of great power and subtlety. In it God defines all of the terms of metaphysics. The Incarnation is the consummation of God's creative work. Creation is transformed by the Incarnation because it reveals God's incredible desire to unite the material with the spiritual.
The Incarnation also establishes the necessity that epistemology be realist. If God grounds his universe in himself, the source of purpose, prudence, understanding, and wisdom, then everything having to do with how we know is grounded in the reality of the Incarnation. Christ knows now both as God and man.
The hylomorphic nature of Christian anthropology is equally revealed by the Incarnation. Christ has two natures in one person. His human nature, that which defines us as human, is the uniting of form (soul) with the substance of the body. They must be together, one thing, the human person. The Incarnation introduced the divine nature of the Son of God at the same time as the egg received a human soul at conception, to become a living person with two natures.
Lastly, ethics must be objective because of the Incarnation, because He knows our weakness and our sin, as well as the great gift of being able to be redeemed and restored. The just Judge has entered the world, and subjectivity has no place. He is the truth.
I'd appreciate any comments. This is what came to me when I saw in those four proposed approaches
In 1967 I studied Dogmatic Theology. Currently, I only hear of Systematic Theology, the term which, I believe has always been used in Protestant seminaries. Somewhere between "Dogmatic" and "Systematic" it seems that Theology lost it's coherence. But, what do I know. I studied Theology 58 years ago.