Why Theology is Important

Short answer: It brings clarification. Long answer: Unlike the way teachers so often present it, theology is not a settled issue of firmly established facts. Theology is theory, forever alive and growing. In the early Church questions arose about doctrine and something to answer them had to be developed. For instance, in the Acts of the Apostles, the Church was faced with the problem of what to do with all the Gentiles who wanted to take part in the salvation of man. Did they have to become Jews first, before they could be saved? Or was entrance into Christianity by grace alone? And then, even if it was by grace, shouldn't they follow the laws of Judaism? Later on, people began wondering who, precisely, was Jesus? Was he really God, or simply an emanation, or maybe a created being? These questions were all answered by studying the Bible, God's special revelation, and the universe, God's general revelation, and finding out what they say. Theology gives us the answers about the Church that we want to know in order to fully understand the Church and what It is that made the Church.