or is Theology just Philosophy with “God”?
Did one originate from the other? If so, which from which?
If not, are they distinctly seperate?
Just a thought I recently had. I would be interested to see what people here think about this question.
This isn’t a HW question. I’m just curious as to what others’ thoughts on this are. I’ll post my own after there are some responses.
No.
Philosophy starts with premises and trys to arrive at conclusions.
Theology starts with a conclusion and trys to build it with premises.
Fundamentally different animals.
This is so very wrong!
Every conclusion is a premiss of it’s own… and every premiss is a conclusion…
Both Philosophy and Theology Begin with premises/conclusions…
FtheNaysayers
Theology is basically the same as philosophy… with some obvious differences… such as a “book” containing true statements… from which one can extract the premises needed to reach conclusions. these true statemnts are given, they cannot be proven and must be accepted on faith alone… they are axiomatic… in philosophy no such thing exists… there are no given truthes
I’d think Theology came first… But i wouldn’t know…
It depends on what you consider “theology.” Religious belief appears earlier in recorded history than logic, yet nothing that we would recognize as “theology” (in the sense in which it is taught today) appears until after Aristotle; early theology was considered philosophy (think Aquinas and the pre-Cartesian Scholastics). They still overlap heavily, the main difference being that theologists will not abandon an argument “just because” it has been logically invalidated.
To answer the original question: neither. Philosophy is philosophy, theology is theology. In a world-historical sense, they developed independently and simultaneously, though perhaps out of the same search for truth and meaning in life.
FtheNaysayers,
There is a very good essay about this very topic located here:
How was Greek philosophy different from what came before? Or was it different? Even though “philosophy” is a Greek word, from phileîn, “to love,” and sophÃa, “wisdom,” perhaps it was just a continuation of how people had always thought about things anyway…
As it happens, Greek philosophy, and Indian and Chinese, were different from what came before; and we can specify what the differences were…
xanderman
so philosophy is to love the wisdom of men
and theology is to love the wisdom of God
Philosophy is secular theology.
Pinnacle, if God gives you the power to reason, then is philosophy love of God’s wisdom too?
There’s so much to do about ‘God’ in philosophy I almost fail to understand the question - i.e. philosophy is not ‘without God’ at all: name a philosopher who doesn’t discuss the subject at length, for example.
As to whether theology is ‘philosophy with God’ - overlooking the same problem as above - there’s some merit to that idea. You could say it’s a ‘branch’ of philosophy whereby much the same intellectual approach is taken, though its essence is within the study of sacred texts opposed to the more general study of thought at large as with philosophy.
Madman,
As usual you are clueless.
They are fundamentally different because philosophy seeks answers, while theology begins with the answer.
One is working upwards, the other downwards.
insulting me won’t make your argument any more compelling… you are only making a fool of yourself by resorting to personal insults.
as for your claim… I have no desire to persue a debate with you on this subject… as it is wholly uninterresting to me… i also believ it would be a waste of both our time…
Merry xmas 
Dr. satanical: 1
The World: 0
I kinda agree with you Dr., but only so far.
Lets say a philosopher poses to himself a question regarding whatever. He starts at “0%” understanding and works his way up to what he believes is “100%” undersatnding. Now, From the moment he poses that question-- his brain has already passed the concept through all of his “life filters” and perhaps subconsciously derived some sort of loose conclusion that he uses as a point of reference to continue his searrch for that “100%” understanding. In essence his own personal conclusions are within him and he does not truly start at 0% but maybe 2% understanding.
When I say “life filters” im jus referring to everything from his upbringing to life experiences which instantly shifts his thoughts on the subject the moment its thought.
So…what I mean to say is PERHAPS we ALL start with a Point of reference that we build upon to help us understand a concept or even ourselves.
You can blow up that “point of reference” and call it God. Or you can just believe its a voice in your head guiding you to a conclusion. I see both as the same.
I believe the “god point of reference” is a dangerous one because that GOD reference can be manipulated by us stupid humans–SO–a dummy who hates homosexuals because he was brought up that way will TACK that personal belief to the god conclusion. This is A VERY strong action because generally a god is all knowing and powerful so once we associate our beliefs and combine it with a FAITH based super conclusion (God) we get a human who loses all objectivity.
Atleast with the “personal point of reference” you can not get all big headed and decide your personal conclusion is correct because you are not a god and therefore will question your beliefs more readily.
What do you think about that Doc? BTW I do enjoy reading your posts.
Satanical,
You’re wrong.
Logic begins with a premise and tries to find a conclusion. Philosophy is much more complicated… igliashon summed it up best. Philosophy evolves… it started out at first as people just trying to make sense of the world, just like theology did. Mind/body, ethics, epistemology, everything in philosophy has to at least touch on a god concept, I mean look at free will.
I’m not saying the two are the same now… but they certainly started out as the same thing, and thus contain parts of each other.
Gobbo.
Philosophy literally means, ‘love of wisdom’
wisdom can only be arived at from the bottom up. If you are seeking actual knowledge, it is intellectually dishonest to assume a conclusion beforehand. You will not arrive at ‘wisdom’ by using this kind of formula, only fantasy. You say that the fact that the two have intertwined as well as the idea that the two were created with the same purpose in mind (a premise I find highly unlikely anyway) precludes them being entirely different; but that is seriously non sequitur.
Or perhaps you have been convinced that faith is a valid epistomology?
Nobody ever starts from the bottom. You can’t even begin to reason without a base set of axioms. The only fundamental difference between philosophy and theology is the base set of axioms from which they proceed. One applies reason to experience of the world (or perhaps just to internal preconceptions of the world), the other attempts to apply reason to a usually textually-defined set of truths about the world in order to resolve conflicts in the truths and relate the truths to world experience.
As I understand the etymology, “theology” = “Theos” (God/Divine) + “Logos” (Account/Explanation/Understanding).
Experience = premise
Information = conclusion.
NOT
Knowledge = premise
Reason = conlusion.
mrn
Philosophy is the love of MAN’s wisdom. I thought I made that very clear.
Philosophy and religion are one and the same.
in terms of concept
philosophy does not seek truth but that truth is revealed to us by philosophers.
religion does not seek truth but that truth is reveald to us by Jesus Christ.
Philosophy is ununderstandable mumbo jumbo
religion is all about parables.
[size=150]Philosophy and Religion are both nonsense.[/size]
Nothing is universal for philosophy and religion only apply to rational men. the animals do not value philosophy so philosophy has no value from their point of view. so it is not universal but has its application on men. I say men invent their own shackles.
Pinnacle, that’s hilarious. Philosophy and religion don’t DO anything; they are abstract concepts, not beings capable of action. There is no religion with out the religious; there is no philosophy without philosophers.
And I think the search for “absolute truth” officially went by the wayside with Hume, though lots of non-canonical philosophers had rejected that goal before him. The study of philosophy these days is more about achieving consistency in thought. Ultimately though, it’s really just a tool to help us get by in the world. Any idea produced by a philosopher that is not in some way beneficial or at least neutral in the quest for survival doesn’t hang on for very long. Natural selection works on memes just as well as it does on genes.
Theology:
1.The study of the nature of God and religious truth; rational inquiry into religious questions.
2.A system or school of opinions concerning God and religious questions: Protestant theology; Jewish theology.
3.A course of specialized religious study usually at a college or seminary.
Most of the philosophy that I like has to do with living on Earth and figuring out how humanity works. Theology is really the study of mythological logic “as ifs†and “what ifs†and how they apply to the “might bes†of life.
There are philosophers like Spinoza and Aquinas that were pseudo-philosophers that addressed religious topics. It’s my belief that these people had a half-hearted belief in god and sought justify mythological concepts via the means of philosophy. They tried to “legitimize†religious concepts in this way. So, they were quasi-theologians.
This statement is both a starting point &/or a result of personal quasi-philosophizing. Ironcially, I suspect you’ll adhere to its truthfulness religiously. 
igliashon
as one intellectual to another. please refrain from using emotion.
correct, they are abstract concepts INVENTED BY MAN and is applicable to man only. outside man there is no philosophy or religion.
even Jesus said himself that ‘the kingdom of God is within you’ in the Gospel according to Luke
but just because there are no ‘absolute truth’ externally, does not mean we are not to exert our will.
TheAdlerian
well, they are both nonsense.
Omar de Fati
this is my view. Humans have certain beliefs, animals may have beliefs. the meaning of life is to exert those beliefs on others. we all have different views, but that does not stop me from exerting my will over others. you know, being intolerant over intolerance…