‘SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY’

PROLEGOMENA

BY
AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG

Name: Ro Kim Mawi

Title of the Book: Systematic Theology
Author: Augustus Hopkins Strong
Pages: 1-25
 Theology is the science of God and of the relations between God and the universe.
Theology gives account not only about God but also those relations between God and the
universe in view that creation, providence, and redemption. The aim of Theology is discovering
obviously of the facts respecting God and the relation between God, and the universe as having
connected of the truth. The arrangement of the facts that are drawn is not optional. A true
theology thinks over again God’s thoughts and bring them into God’s order.
The existence of God who has relations to the universe, the mental ability of the human
mind for knowing God and certain of these relations, and the provision of the revelation are the
threefold ground of theology in possibility. Faith is the key in knowing God and especially in the
existence of God who has relation to the universe because it’s a higher sort of knowledge, it’s a
higher conditioned by holy affection, and only faith can furnish for a scientific theology. In the
mental ability of human mind for knowing God and certain of these relations we can know God
because the fact that God is not phenomenal doesn’t prevent us from knowing Him, there are
important analogies between divine nature and ours who are created in His own image, and we
can know Him even though we are not form an adequate mental image of Him, we may yet have
a partial knowledge of Him although He is not composed of parts. We can know Him because all
predicates of God are not merely negative but has self-sufficiency. God allows to know Him to
some extend that He wants us to know even though he is more than that. To know God doesn’t
really mean that God is limited and define because He is limited by the unchangeableness of His
own attributes and personal distinctions. In theology, we are equally warranted in assuming that
the laws of our thoughts are laws of God’s though, and that the result of normally conducted
thinking with regard to God correspond the objective reality. In God’s actual revelation of
Himself and certain of these relations the aim is that granting the fact of revelation and a
scientific theology is possible. Understanding of divine things is impossible without a quickening
of man’s cognitive powers, and the revelation, when originally imparted, was often internal and
subjective. The universe is a revelation of God; God’s works in nature precede God ‘s words in
history. The same Spirit who communicated the truth internally has brought about the external
record of it, so that the internal revelation might be handed down to others than those who first
received it. There is given under proper conditions a special influence of God’s Spirit, so to
quicken our cognitive powers that the external record reproduces in our minds the idea with
which the minds of the writers were at first divinely filled. Theology has to do with subjective
feeling only as they can be defined, and shown to be affects objective truth upon the mind.
The necessity of theology has its ground; in the organizing instinct of the human mind
which is peculiar for the organizing principle is a part of our constitution, in the relation of
systematic truth to the development of character for digesting truth thoroughly is essential to the
growth of Christian character in the individual and in the church, in the importance to the
preacher of definite and just view of Christian doctrine this is the best safeguard against
misrepresentation and the diligent study of the several doctrines of the faith in their relations to
one another is essential for a Christian preacher, in the intimate connection between correct
doctrine and the safety and aggressive power of the truth (2Tim 1:13; 1Tim 3:15) this is
important not only an individual defense against and immorality but also an indispensable and
instrument in aggressive labor for the world conversion, and in the direct and indirect injunctions
of Scripture. Theology and religion are related to each other as effects, in difference spheres, of
the same cause. Religion in its essential is a life in God, a life lived in recognition of God, in
communion with God, and under control of the indwelling Spirit of God. God Himself is the
source of Theology.