What Is Historical Theology?

How can history aid Christians in understanding the way theological ideas have developed through the centuries? Today, Joel Kim defines historical theology and describes its role in helping us grow in our knowledge of God.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: Today on the Ask Ligonier podcast, I’m joined by Rev. Joel Kim. He’s the president of Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California. Rev. Kim, what is historical theology?

REV. JOEL KIM: Lots of people love history. I do as well. History teaches us much about who we are, our identity, our background, and where we’re coming from. And as people who are people of the Word, we recognize that we also have a theological identity. Historical theology tries to trace and narrate the history of the development of theology—the very things that you and I believe in.

It’s a little bit different than church history in this sense: that church history focuses on institutions and happenings that allow us to understand what’s going on socially and contextually. Those are important things too, and oftentimes, those are very fun for us to hear. But as we think about development of theology, whether how Christians understood the Word, how Christians studied the Word, how Christians understood particular theological ideas, we recognize it took some time to not only articulate, develop, and to be able to help us understand those things better.

So, historical theology traces those things to help us better understand the theological convictions that we have. The work is primarily descriptive—that is, it’s not dictating to us what we ought to believe—that’s the work of systematic theology. But historical theology teaches us how these things developed so that we have a better contextual understanding of the theological positions that you and I have.

This is actually a study in our family history—that’s all that is—in terms of understanding, “Who are we?,” “Where have we come from?,” and “What ought we believe?” in order that we can better engage the present-day worship, present-day theological discussions, and the present-day particular practices of the church, that we may be better informed to do it for the glory of God.

BINGHAM: Could you give a brief example of the progression of a particular doctrine?

KIM: We oftentimes think of multiple sections in terms of history. We talk about the early church, we talk about the medieval period, we talk about the Reformation, post-Reformation, and modern period. When we look back, we think of a lot of different theological discussions taking place.

We often think of the early church, of the Trinitarian controversies. While we recognize that the Trinity is found in the Word, in terms of how we formulate and articulate this theologically, it took some time. And we recognize that there are debates that took place—interesting personalities and theologians involved, with the languages that are being applied—and for us to see that not only understood better and articulated in our confessional documents but applied to our worship as well. That all took place in the first three or four centuries of Christian church history. We recognize that from that point on, we’re developing those things.

Perhaps the one that many people are most familiar with is the kind of Pelagianism-Augustinian controversy over doctrines of grace and salvation. And as they debated between our place in salvation, which I believe that there is no place of our own works in our salvation, that gets developed furthermore in terms of justification by salvation during the Reformation period, which articulates further how God sovereignly and supremely delivers us from our sin not because of what we do but because of all that He has done in Christ Jesus.