Editing Theology (section)

=== Classical philosophy ===
Greek ''theologia'' (θεολογία) was used with the meaning 'discourse on God' around 380 BC by [[Plato]] in ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]''.
{{Verse translation
|head1= Greek
|lang1=grc
|… ὀρθῶς, ἔφη· ἀλλʼ αὐτὸ δὴ τοῦτο, οἱ τύποι περὶ '''θεολογίας''' τίνες ἂν εἶεν;<br/> τοιοίδε πού τινες, ἦν δʼ ἐγώ· οἷος τυγχάνει ὁ θεὸς ὤν, ἀεὶ δήπου ἀποδοτέον, ἐάντέ τις αὐτὸν ἐν ἔπεσιν ποιῇ ἐάντε ἐν μέλεσιν ἐάντε ἐν τραγῳδίᾳ.|attr1=Plato, ''Republic'' 379a. <ref name=politeia379a>[https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg030.perseus-grc2:2.379?right=perseus-eng2 Plato, ''Republic'', Book 2, Section 379 (2.379)]</ref><ref>Plato. ''Platonis Opera'', ed. John Burnet. Oxford University Press. 1903.</ref> (emphasis added)
|head2= English translation by Shorey (1969)
|lang2=en
|… Right, he said; but this very thing—the patterns or norms of '''right speech about the gods''', what would they be?<br/> Something like this, I said. The true quality of God we must always surely attribute to him whether we compose in epic, melic, or tragic verse.|attr2=Plato, ''Republic'' 379a. <ref name=politeia379a/><ref>Plato. ''Plato in Twelve Volumes'', Vols. 5 & 6 translated by Paul Shorey. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1969.</ref> (emphasis added)}}

Plato develops his rational theology ([[natural theology]]) in Book 10 of ''[[Laws (dialogue)|the Laws]]''. In the dialogue, he opposes atheism and argues that the heavenly bodies are moved by the divine souls of the gods and their intelligence ([[nous]]). He also maintains that these gods care for humans and aim for the good of the universe as a whole.

[[Aristotle]] divided theoretical philosophy into ''mathematike'', ''physike'', and ''theologike'', with the latter corresponding roughly to [[metaphysics]], which, for Aristotle, included discourse on the nature of the divine.<ref>[http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/mirror/classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.6.vi.html Aristotle, ''Metaphysics'', Book Epsilon.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216173401/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/mirror/classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.6.vi.html |date=16 February 2008 }}</ref>

Drawing on Greek [[Stoicism|Stoic]] sources, the [[Latin]] writer [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]] distinguished three forms of such discourse:<ref name=":0">[[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]], [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120106.htm ''City of God'' VI] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061213030350/http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120106.htm |date=13 December 2006 }}, ch. 5.</ref>

# [[Mythology|mythical]], concerning the myths of the Greek gods;
# rational, philosophical analysis of the gods and of cosmology; and
# civil, concerning the rites and duties of public religious observance.