Sources of Theology

It has already been shown that everyone has theology – everyone thinks about God. How do we know whether what we think about God is correct? This is determined by the source of our theology. We go wrong in what we think about God when we draw on the wrong places.

So what are your sources of theology? Where do we draw our information about God from? Common sources are our own judgement, traditions, experiences, reason, culture, science, nature, testimonies, feelings, emotion, conscience, religion, a religious leader or scripture. Most often people use a mixture of these things.

What is the basis of authority in theology? Everything people say about God has a basis which they assume has authority to make it valid. It is important to know whether what we say and think about God is correct. One way to find out is to ask what the authority of our position is. Why do we believe what we believe?

In this section we explore authorities that people advocate. Traditionally, Evangelicals/Pentecostals hold that scripture is the only basis of authority, but in practice this position is not always maintained. The traditional doctrine of the authority of scripture is based on the doctrine of inerrancy. So we will first explore inerrancy and textual transmission to our current day.