[Lexicon theologicum in quo theologiae termini explicantur juxta seriem locorum communium; Accedit monitio de lectione Novi Testamenti; (Prostat, 1612)]
Biography: Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638), that industrious and God-fearing servant of the Church, was born in Mittenaar within the bounds of the Holy Roman Empire and was educated under the noble tutelage of Johannes Piscator at Herborn, and afterward under such men as Goclenius and Polanus, blending the disciplines of philosophy, theology, and the liberal arts. He was deeply steeped in the Reformed faith, trained in Ramist method and Lullist art, and rose swiftly to prominence as professor of philosophy and theology at Herborn Academy. In his later years, having been driven by the fury of the Thirty Years' War, he settled in the land of Transylvania, where, at the city of Alba Iulia, he established a Calvinist academy, laboring for the propagation of pure doctrine among the churches recently reclaimed from Socinian heresy. As a man whose very name was anagrammed into Sedulitas (diligence), Alsted pursued the systematization of knowledge with a singular zeal. His crowning achievement, the Encyclopaedia Septem Tomis Distincta (1630), was not merely an inventory of sciences, but a theological and philosophical edifice structured according to the order of divine wisdom. He sought to demonstrate that all branches of learning, rightly understood, flow from and return unto Sacred Scripture. His labors were praised by the godly Cotton Mather and influenced John Amos Comenius, while even Leibniz once considered revising his great work. Though some censured him for his unacknowledged borrowings, yet none could deny the utility or magnificence of his efforts. In theology, he was a fierce opponent of the Socinians, authoring his Prodromusto confound their impieties. Thus lived and died this encyclopaedic divine, whose writings form a citadel of Reformed learning, erected to the glory of Christ and the edification of the saints.
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Theology is the science of divine things: and in the same sense it is called Theosophia. It is derived from the Greek θεολόγος. This term referreth to one who λέγει περὶ τῶν θείων, that is, who discourseth of God and divine matters, being learned in things divine. This word is both divine and human. Divine indeed, because it appeareth in the inscription of the Apocalypse (which book can be proven to be Canonical and Catholic by many arguments, yea, the most excellent ones), and is peculiarly attributed to the Apostle John by way of eminence, because above others he hath asserted τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον, the Word of God, and proven Him to be God. And I have called it human, because it is found among both sacred and profane authors. Among sacred authors, both Latin and Greek. Among the Greeks, and especially in Dionysius the Areopagite, who maketh a twofold theology, namely, τὴν μὲν ἀπόῤῥητον καὶ μυστικήν, τὴν δ’ ἐμφανῆ καὶγνωριμωτέραν; or τὴν μὲν συμβολικήν, ἢ τελεστικήν, τὴν δὲ φιλόσοφον καὶ ἀποδεικτικήν. It is also found among the Latins, as in Lactantius concerning the wrath of God, who bursteth forth into these words: “Those who treated of the gods and their worship were called Theologians, and their knowledge Theology.” Thus saith he.
Let us come to the profane authors, and first indeed to the Greeks. Plato in the second book of his Republic writeth, οἱ τύποι περὶθεολογίας. So in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Book 10, Chapter 6, we read of θεολογικὴ ἐπιστήμη, which he declareth to be the most excellent of θεωρητικῶν ἐπιστημῶν, the contemplative sciences. The Latins also have used this word. Cicero, the father of Roman eloquence, in his second book on The Nature of the Gods, saith: “They who are called Theologians number three Jupiters.” Here (by the way) observe that most definitions of disciplines are Greek, both because these disciplines were first cultivated by the Greeks, and because the Latins lack suitable terms. For they are forced to circumlocute and circumscribe those definitions. Thus also there are many terms in Latin which the German language cannot express.
Wherein I would also have thee observe that those definitions are generally taken from the objects of the disciplines, or the subjects with which they are concerned, which can easily be proved by ἐπαγωγή, induction. γραμματική is so called because it dealeth with γράμματα; λογική (the Dorians changing o into a, say λογικά) is so named ἀπὸ τοῦ λόγοςbecause it is concerned with and occupied in rational secondary notions (for there are also verbal ones). Ἀριθμητική hath received its name ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ. Let the same judgment be made concerning Geometry, Physics, Optics, Astrology, etc.
From what hath been said, it clearly appeareth that the definitions of disciplines are some substantive, others adjective. With adjectives, substantives must be understood; e.g., γραμματική, that is, τέχνη, or ἐπιστήμη, or φρόνησις. Therefore from what hath gone before, it is understood that this word θεολογία also indicateth its object, namely God. But, thou sayest, this is not the adequate object of Theology: because it discourseth not only of God, but also of God’s actions. God therefore is a partial object, not the total. But, I say with the Scholastics, the object of Theology is God in the direct and oblique case, that is, God, and the things which are God’s: θεὸς καὶ τὰ θεοῦ, or τὰ θεῖα.
Moreover, from the word θεολόγος these are generally derived: θεολογικός, pertaining to Theologians: also in Nazianzen: skilled in Theology, devoted to Theology. Θεολογέω, ῶ, I speak of God or divine things. Hence that saying: τοῦ θεολογεῖν οὐδὲν ἥδιον ἐν τῷ βίῳ. So θεολογεῖν τὸν Ἰησοῦν means to assert and proclaim Jesus, according to Budaeus. The passive θεολογέομαι is also found in Plutarch. θεολογούμενα (as Budaeus interpreteth it) are matters theologically disputed and explained. It is fitting here to insert a rule: Verbal nouns in -os derived from the middle perfect, and compounded with nouns, if they are taken actively, receive the accent on the penultimate: as, from λόγος, θεολόγος, θεομάχος, Θεοτόκος, θεοφόρος, etc.
This science is called by the Rabbis Chochmáth Amath, the Wisdom of Truth. So Chochmath haelahuth, the Wisdom of Divinity, that is, Metaphysics, as it was formerly written, which treated of intelligences, like the Jews’ Mercana, and the more secret acroamatic science. Chochmáth Techunah, Mathematics. Chochmath chathibhit, Physics, natural science. Chochmath hammispar, the wisdom of number, Arithmetic, which is also improperly called Gemathria, that is, Geometry by the Rabbis. It also signifieth Algebra, or that art which treateth of the occult part of numbers. Chochmath hasschihur, Geometry, Geodesy, Geography. Chochmathhachchesbón, the art of calculation, Algorithm, computation. Chochmathchibbur hanniguním, Music. Chochmath haccochabím, the wisdom of the stars, Astronomy, Astrology. Thus the Theory of Planets is called Chochmath hammatsallóth. Logic is aptly called by these same Rabbis higgajón, or melécheth hegjón, that is, the artificial work of meditation. They call Theologians Chaccamé Emath: Arithmeticians Chaccamé hammispar: Mathematicians Chaccamé hammechkár: and lastly, Physicians Chaccamé haropheím.
Besides these, Theology is called by another name θεοδιδασκαλία, θεοσέβεια. Theology, saith Augustine, signifieth either the speech of God Himself, or speech and reasoning concerning divinity. There is therefore (according to Junius) a twofold signification of this name, if we attend to its etymology: both received by the custom of Greek speech. For as θεοπρόπιον is an oracle which God declareth; and θεοσημεία, a sign which God showeth; so also Theology is a speech which God Himself uttereth in created things. Nevertheless, that other signification seemeth to have been more in use in Greek speech; so that by the appellation of Theology, we understand the speech itself which is declared concerning God, or the reasoning of divine things.
And indeed these two things can not only agree with the just nature of Theology, but must also necessarily agree per se and together ἀχωρίστως. But because properly both interpretations cannot be attributed to and contained in this name in the same place, by the force (as they call it) of the word, the latter signification hath prevailed in the schools of Theologians. This Theology, inasmuch as it was treated in a Scholastic and as it were Philosophical manner, was called Scholastic (whence Scholastic Theologians, of whom there are two sects, Thomistic and Scotistic); inasmuch as it was concerning things to be known, it was called theoretical; inasmuch as it was concerning things to be done, it was called practical. Also considered either from the truth of the matter in itself, it is called true, or from the depravation of human judgment, false and opinionable, to which only the name belongeth, and it is called Theology ψευδωνύμως, falsely, just as a dead man is called a man.
This false Theology is twofold: one vulgar, the other philosophical. Vulgar, which abiding in the imperfect principles of our nature doth not rise higher by reasoning: Philosophical, which by error of reasoning hath flowed away into false conclusions, and hath created from those principles a fabulous, natural, and civil theology.