Simply put, theology is the study of God. Theological formulation is the approach used to progress from the study of God to an understanding of God. Understanding God begins at a theological reflection but then moves to an articulation of that theological reflection. Theology not only wants to think about God, it also wants to say something about God. Since God is the basis of the Christian faith, theology must begin and end with God. The foundation of theological formulation is the question of God; Christian theology seeks to discover how knowledge of God affects knowledge of everything else. There are many questions that theology seeks to answer like the questions of the nature of a person, the nature of our sinfulness and the nature of God’s salvation, but each of these questions begin with the character of who God is. The concept of God is rich and deep in essence that allows theological formulation to take on many directions and questions about the Christian faith.
Doing theology is also more about the process of critical thinking than finding a solution. While people seek to discover who God is, they also accept that God will always be some type of a mystery. There is a difference between God and humanity as people are finite and God is infinite. Theological discovery embraces that the knowledge of God will never be completely attained. God is not some concept like knowing the mechanics of a car that needs to be ascertained. While theology does not lead to a particular goal to attain in the end, there is also some completeness within theology. The study of God may not lead to concrete answers, but it does lead to some clarity. The discovery found in theological study brings clarity to the Christian faith, but it also brings more questions. Theological formulation creates the necessity of discovering more questions. Theological formulation is faith seeking understanding as the Christian faith is trying to understand itself in light of new understanding available to humanity.
