Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Theology
/θiˈɒlədʒi/noun
The systematic study of God and religious belief.
The Greek roots
θεός
theós
god
λόγος
lógos
account, discourse
Literally: “talk about god”
The story of the word
Plato used theología in the Republic for the stories poets tell about the gods, and he wanted them censored. Aristotle promoted the word to a branch of philosophy, the study of the highest being. Christian writers took it over, and by the twelfth century the Paris schools had made it a faculty with a syllabus and examinations. Abelard's book on the subject was burned in 1121, which says something about how settled the discipline was.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
atheismtheocracypantheonenthusiasm
In a sentence
He read theology at Durham and then went into insurance.