Over the past few months, I’ve returned to Belhaven University to finish my MA in Biblical and Theological Studies. It was a needed hiatus, but I’m glad I returned. I finished my first course in Old Testament Histories last week. The study of how the theme of kingship develops through 1 Samuel to Nehemiah gave me some ideas for a fantasy series (I may write about this in the future). However, today makes the end of my first week in Systematic Theology and so far, it’s amazing!

The assigned texts are John Frame’s Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief and J.I. Packer’s Knowing God. The program also uses video lectures from Third Millennium Ministries. This week’s video lesson is called “What is Theology?” In the video, they state the primary goals of theology as orthodoxy (right thinking), orthopraxis (right behavior), and orthopathos (right feelings). The first two concepts are familiar to many, but the last idea of having correct emotions is often overlooked. We should balance these three in order to make sure our theology is sound.

Why is the emotional goal of theology not as familiar? I can only speak to my faith tradition, which is protestant evangelical. Our tradition teaches us that our feelings are not to be trusted. Feelings are subjective. However, the video argues that proper feelings are important for a wholistic theology. I found this very interesting. Here is a link to the video here. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments section.

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