BIB 326: Historical Theology
How Christians have understood theology across two millennia — and what that history still says to the church today.
Course Description
BIB 326 introduces historical theology as an academic discipline — the careful analysis of how Christians have understood doctrines across the church's two-thousand-year history. The course examines the development of past Christian beliefs about Scripture, God, salvation, the church, and the last things, and asks how that historical work still applies to the life of the church today.
Where systematic theology asks "what should we believe?" and biblical theology asks "what does Scripture say?" — historical theology asks "how have Christians answered both questions across the centuries?" The course is built on the conviction that today's church doesn't have to figure everything out from scratch; it has a long, rich, sometimes contested tradition to learn from.
BIB 326 pairs with PHI 310 Philosophy of Christian Thought to round out the historical and philosophical side of the BA's Theology Concentration core.
Prerequisites
- None
Corequisites
- None
Learning Outcomes
Define Historical Theology
Distinguish historical theology from systematic theology, biblical theology, and church history.
Trace Doctrinal Development
Follow how major Christian doctrines have been articulated and refined across the church's history.
Engage Past Christian Thinkers
Work through the writings and arguments of theologians who shaped the doctrines we now inherit.
Examine Theological Controversies
Study the debates, councils, and reforms that pressed the church to clarify its convictions.
Apply History to Present Practice
Bring historical theological insights to bear on contemporary questions facing the church.
Biblical Worldview Connection
A Biblical Worldview recognizes that the church is older than any of us — and that Christians who came before were wrestling with the same questions, often with more rigor and care than we manage today. BIB 326 takes that conviction seriously, treating historical theology as an apprenticeship in the long tradition of Christian thinking.
Explore Programs With This Course
BIB 326 brings two thousand years of theological conversation into ACU's Theology Concentration. Explore the programs that include it.
