History shows theology's future

Professor Lloyd Geering thinks theology has a future.

Professor Geering, speaking to the New Zealand Science Students' Conference, said theology was still of vital importance to the human race but it had been forced to reconsider its role.

It was not realised by most that Christianity's basic doctrines incorporated many ideas from ancient Greek culture such as the Platonic doctrine of the immortal soul.

So Christianity was not the systematic culture it was generally thought to be.

"I like to think of the [unclear: Testament] as the Diary of [unclear: rael] and what diary is systematic?" Professor Geering asked.

One of the basic suppositions of the Christian faith was the reality and permanence of truth and thereby the eternal permanence of God, the source of truth.

Today it was the task of theology to reconcile this with many precepts considered un-Christian but which, in fact, had their role in the Christian faith.

"The new secular world has arrived so rapidly that the churches have been forced too much on to the defensive." he said.

"Much Christian thought has suffered because of this."